hey you, shut up!
by gabeclone
Summary: Brutal fights, whispers of humor, character development: not everything you could possibly want, but probably at least one thing you could possibly want. Also the first chapter is terribly formatted and I just can't be bothered to fix it. It gets much better as the story progresses.
1. Chapter 1

here's a short… thing, i don't know if i'm going to turn this into a full story or if i'm going to leave it at this, but i just felt like writing this.

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The sun was just coming up over the horizon in Konoha. This early in the morning, not many people were out and shops were just beginning to open. It was at this time that young Naruto sneaked out of his apartment and onto the street. He was six years old as of his last birthday, and today he was starting the ninja academy. In order to avoid as many people as possible he decided to leave as early as possible. As he stepped out onto the street, he looked both ways before turning in the direction of the academy.  
Suddenly a mob of people appeared out of thin air… literally. Actually literally out of thin air. A mob of thirty villagers appeared ten feet to the left and five feet up in the air. After dropping to the ground they all looked around in shocked confusion.  
"What are you all doing in my bathroom!" shrieked a man who was wearing nothing but a towel and a bath cap.  
While this was happening, Naruto was backing away slowly in alarm. Though this was certainly alarming, he wasn't entirely surprised. Impossibly unlucky things always seemed to happen around him.  
He didn't get far before the gathered villagers noticed him.  
"monster!" one of the villagers said, gathering the attention of those around him.  
Almost as one, the gathered people turned to look at Naruto who was silently cursing while still backing away. He wasn't going to stop, he wasn't going to stop for anything. If he did and he got caught, at best he would miss class today, at worst he would miss class forever.  
His slow retreat didn't escape the attention of any of the villagers… Except the bathroom guy who rather than focus on Naruto, chose to instead hurry home in order to salvage his decency. The mob started slowly advancing as Naruto retreated. Walking towards him at a purposeful but almost leisurely pace.  
"oh that's unnerving" thought Naruto. Usually when people chased him they ran after him as fast as they could. "maybe if things continue like this, they'll be easy to get away from"  
Just as he thought that, one of the villagers got impatient, pushed people near the front out of the way and broke into a sprint after Naruto. Who responded by finally turning around and running as fast as his legs could carry him.  
He may have been fast from all the years of running but Naruto knew that if he didn't do anything the one behind him would catch him. With that in mind he grabbed the lid off a garbage can as he ran by, spun in the air and hurled the lid at the legs of the man chasing him.  
The man was no ninja and as such just didn't have the reflexes to dodge something like that. The garbage can lid hit him in the legs and he tripped falling face first onto the ground. The rest of the gathered villagers had not bothered to run, content in the knowledge that the one person running would be enough to catch the changeling. So with such a large head start, Naruto escaped them easily and made it the rest of the way to the academy without further incident.


	2. an important decision

well… here's the second chapter… i guess i will continue this… though i'm still not one hundred percent committed.

it would be hours before the academy classes started, only a few teachers were even around and only the most dedicated. Owing to his naturally adventurous and curious nature, Naruto decided to spend the time between classes starting and arriving himself exploring the grounds. he had never been inside the building before and though he didn't know it the time he  
spent avoiding the notice of the distracted and tired teachers was good stealth practice.

as he silently made his way for the hallways, he opened each door he passed just a crack and peaked inside. he would have simply swung them open but he had almost been caught once doing that when he walked into the teachers lounge. luckily he was able to dive back out again and hide in a locker before anyone saw him. not that the teachers, tired as they may have been, didn't notice that someone had clearly just opened the door and ran away. they just didn't think it was worth the effort of investigating. after all anyone who was actually there for nefarious reasons, who actually had a shot at completely their objective, wouldn't have barged into a room without checking it first. that was amateur hour stuff.

dutiful as he was in checking every door as he crept along, he didn't miss looking into a storage closet. the inside of which was important, though relatively uninteresting to someone as young as Naruto. the inside of the closet was lined with shelves which held a variety of items. most of the items were books, but there were also some bags.

taking a closer look Naruto found that the books were texts books for the course curriculum. there were five different books and a lot of copies of those five. there was a book on basic taijutsu, basic ninjutsu, basic genjutsu, basic stealth, and village history. after looking at the titles of the books Naruto decided to take a copy of each. after all they were going to passed out to the class anyway, he was just getting a head start.

though he didn't know it, taking these books now instead of simply waiting for them to be given to him in class was one of the most important things naruto had ever done in his short life. the books weren't too terribly large, they were just the basics in each category after all. they gave just enough information to start ninja hopefuls on the right path, but not enough information that an enemy agent who got their hands on one wouldn't be able to get glean any incredibly useful information from them.

of course naruto didn't have anything to carry them in, he hadn't brought a bag with him when he left his apartment. this lack was what caused him to discover what was in the bags.

"whoa" Naruto muttered under his breath. he had carefully, as he didn't want any loud noises to give him away, poured the contents of the bag onto the floor. the bag was filled with practice kunai. blunted metal, not useful in actual combat but of unparalleled use for training or sparing. a quick look in one of the other bags revealed similarly blunted training shuriken, which he also carefully poured onto the floor. now he had two bags to choose from. one blue and the other beige. he decided on the blue one as blue was a more interesting color in his opinion. he took some of the practice kunai and shuriken, which was a decision that was less important to his future development than his previous one, but was still a pretty important decision. perhaps a distant second as far as importance went.

put his new books in his new bag next to his new training equipment, zipped the bag back up and shut the door behind him as quietly and carefully as he could when he left. no sooner had he shut the door when he heard a loud bang and a crash from the closet he just left.

he swung the closet back open to find that to his impossibly bad luck, all the shelves had collapsed in on themselves. he didn't have time to stand around and contemplate how stupidly unlucky he was though, he heard voices from down the hall and foot steps moving closer to his position, so he ran. he jumped out an open window and he ran. he would be missing the first day of school.

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hmm… maybe this won't be a comedy at all, that was slightly depressing to write…


	3. ciphers and sabotage

hey, whoever is reading this for whatever reason, this is the third chapter of Hey you, shut up! don't hold your breath for the next one, i still might drop this at any time. i'm using this as something to do while i pursue other stuff, so…

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Arriving at school the next day was… awkward. He still showed up hours before any of the other students, but that was simply practical survival. It gave him more time to explore the school anyway. He hadn't actually gotten to explore much of it the day before due to the accident. That wasn't the awkward part though. No, the awkward part was when students and teachers actually started to show up. They stared, or glared in the case of some, at him. He wasn't fool enough to believe that he was getting this attention because he skipped school the previous day, but that probably hadn't helped any.

When class actually started the other students stopped paying him so much attention. the teacher and his assistant didn't stop glaring though.

"Those of you who missed class yesterday", the teacher stopped an glared pointedly at Naruto, "Are lucky that yesterday was simply an introduction. Today we actually start learning about your chosen profession. First though we'll be passing out the course text books."

Naruto wasn't… excited exactly… more anxious to get started. He of course already had the course text books but it couldn't hurt to get a second copy in case he lost his first ones.

The teaching assistant paused only briefly next to him to place a small history text book on his desk before moving on. Naruto supposed they would get the other books in the other classes. He opened the book in front of him and stared at the first page. He wasn't shocked, or hurt, to discover that every other line had been censored with black permanent marker.

The teacher had started speaking again, but Naruto tuned him out as he flipped through the rest of the small book. it was the same on every page. every other line on every page had been censored. Naruto almost felt like they were making fun of him because he could read enough information to have the vaguest possibly understanding of everything, but not enough to actually know what happened. just from reading a few pages on one chapter he knew that something called the second great shinobi war had happened, which implied that there had been a first, but he couldn't read about what actually happened during the war. for that matter, he couldn't find any reference to the first great shinobi war either. Naruto skimmed through the rest of the book before giving it up as a lost cause and focusing back on what the teacher was saying.

The next class was stealth. when the books were handed out Naruto hoped that maybe the the book for this class wasn't tampered with, but he didn't hold his breath. He opened the book wide and caught a glimpse of what looked like a rectangular piece of paper with squiggles on it before the whole book erupted into flame.

"UZUMAKI!" the teacher shouted as everyone turned to look at Naruto is shock. looking up Naruto could see the teacher smirking at him before he forced his face to show anger.

"WHAT DID YOU DO! I WILL NOT HAVE MY STUDENTS SETTING FIRE TO THEIR TEXT BOOKS! GET OUT!"

Naruto stood slowly and left the room.

"you will not be getting another text book" his teacher said as he left.

it was still the very start of the class, so he had a lot of time before the next one. Naruto thought about exploring the school some more but he didn't want to give any teacher the opportunity to kick him out for trespassing. so he waited, he would have simply gone to wait outside his next class but he didn't know where it was yet.

after a extremely boring wait he got to go to taijutsu class with everyone else. from what little Naruto knew about civilian schools, taijutsu class seemed to be equivalent to gym class. They all just went outside. the day before was apparently something of a free day where everyone just got to run around and do whatever they wanted. Naruto was kind of sorry he missed that, it sounded fun. today though they actually started working on basic conditioning. nothing too strenuous, just a few laps around the field and a lesson on how to throw a punch correctly after that. A lot of the students looked really bored with this class, Naruto wasn't sure why. Though he understood that running laps wasn't the most exciting of activities, they didn't look tired like most of the class, just bored. as class was just about to end the teacher handed out the course books. Naruto was almost afraid of what they were going to do to his, but his was never given. the teacher, Mizuki-sensei looked at him apologetically as he told him they were one course book short. that's the only reason Naruto remembered him name, he was the only person to treat Naruto half decently so far.

"it's ok though, come to me if you have any questions and i'll help you as much as i can" Mizuki-sensei explained.

Naruto decided that he liked Mizuki-sensei.

Genjutsu class was next. all the students walked in and after that Naruto honestly couldn't say what happened. he remembered walking in and then the next he recalled, class was over. it didn't feel like he day dreamed though. everything just seemed to lose focus in his mind the moment he entered the classroom. upon leaving he found that he didn't even have a course book like every one else, but an invading thought in head told him that asking his teacher for one was probably a bad idea. so he didn't.

the last class of the day was ninjutsu class. instead of passing out the course books the teacher had a stack of them on his desk and he had everyone come up and get one when their name was called. Naruto's name was near the bottom of the list so he had to wait a while before he was called up, but when he was the teacher stopped him from grabbing a book from the pile.

hold on uzumaki-san, i have a special book for you" he said with a blank look on his face.

Naruto sighed internally, he almost thought he would be getting an untampered book this time.

all the other students were staring at Naruto again as their teacher reached into his desk and brought out a brand new looking book. he handed it to Naruto and sent him back to his desk. as the remaining students got their books and class officially started, Naruto flipped open his book. he almost dreaded looking inside. the inside of the book was gibberish, or seemed to be anyway. the first page said "wkh wklug hglwlrq edvlf qlqmxwvx kdqg errn" which obviously didn't mean anything to Naruto, but in small letters at the bottom of the page were the words "sand cipher".

Naruto didn't know what a cipher was, but it sounded technical. he decided to ask the old man about it later, the old man knew everything.

well, that was a chapter. that certainly was a chapter. review to tell me if you liked it… or don't. ok notes:  
1\. i wanted the method that each of the teachers used to screw over Naruto to be unique to the teacher, it makes for more interesting reading.  
2\. the teachers from history class were indeed mocking Naruto by blacking out every other line.  
3\. that squiggle rectangle in the text book from stealth class was an ignition tag, placed there by the teacher.  
4\. Mizuki is playing the long con, i don't care if you think that's a spoiler, it's really not. he's acting friendly now in case he needs something later, but he's not actually planning on helping Naruto.  
5\. the genjutsu teachers dealt with Naruto using their specialty, and everyone knows that Naruto is extremely susceptible to genjutsu.  
6\. the teacher from ninjutsu class is actually Iruka. the reason he did what he did with Naruto's text book because at this point he still considers Naruto to be the Kyuubi, but his pride as a teacher will not allow him to simply remove all hopes of Naruto's success. so instead he rewrote the entire ninjutsu hand book in a basic code and told Naruto the name of the code so he could look up the key on his own time.  
7\. the real name of the sand cipher is the caesar cipher. how it's done is that you shift every letter in whatever you're writing three letters forward. "hello" becomes "khoor". it's one of the most basic ciphers… i may include others in the future… i don't know.


	4. the sand cipher

Another chapter, chapter four in fact. seriously, give some kind of feed back if you're reading this. not knowing whether or not anybody even likes this drains my enthusiasm.

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The Third Hokage was to say the least, surprised by Naruto's question.

"hmm, sand cipher, where did you run across that particular term." He asked.

"it was written in my ninjutsu text book." Naruto replied.

The Hokage sat back in his comfy looking chair and thought for a moment

"well, I suppose that's a valid question" he said finally.

Naruto didn't know what valid meant but he understood the rest of what the Old Man had said, and he knew from the tone of voice that he wasn't being scolded.

"well first, do you know what a cipher is?" Sarutobi asked.

Naruto shook his head in the negative.

"a cipher is a way of mixing up a plainly written message into something totally unreadable to all those who don't know how to… un mix the message" the Old Man said. "the sand cipher was a cipher used in the second great shinobi war. it was rather simple compared to most ciphers being used at the time but that's what made it so ingenious…" The Third Hokage paused when a blank look fell over Naruto's face when upon hearing the last word, "smart" The Hokage clarified. "it's simplicity is what made it so smart. while everyone else had ciphers that relied on complicated mathematical equations or the use of symbols in place of letters, Sand made a cipher so simple that nobody could solve it because they were all thinking too hard. it wasn't until after the war ended that the key to the sand cipher became common knowledge." The Hokage paused here, before continuing on to say, "but you're not interested in the history of the sand cipher, you're wondering what it actually is. to use the sand cipher you simply shift the letters of you're message three letter forward in the alphabet, and you solve it by shifting the letters back. here let me show you" The Old Man pulled a blank piece of paper out of his desk. and gestured Naruto over.

"here's an example. hello becomes khoor when put through the cipher, you understand?" The Hokage asked Naruto.

Naruto nodded.

"alright so, using the same method but in reverse, can you figure out what qduxwr means?" The Hokage queried.

Naruto thought about what he had just learned and ran all the letters through his head, going through the entire alphabet multiple times to figure it out before replying "it's my name"

"yep that's right, good job Naruto." The Old Man complimented, "do you have anymore questions?" he inquired.

"no, thanks Old Man!" Naruto exclaimed, as he waved while jogging out of the room.

"we'll get lunch together next weekend Naruto, i want to hear about how you've been doing" The Old Man said.

"Right! cya!" and Naruto was out of sight.

when Naruto got back to his apartment he had a decision to make. he needed to decide if he was going to bother deciphering the ninjutsu text book. on one hand he already had a copy of the text book that wasn't coded and he could just read that without all the hassle of slowly decoding the information inside. on the other hand; if he did decode the ninjutsu book, he would probably be very good at using the sand cipher by the end of it. Naruto could see the use in being able to write in and understand a code that not many others knew how to read on sight. while yes, information of the code was easily available; if he didn't include the name of the cipher he was using, people wouldn't think to look it up. which meant that if he did start writing everything in a cipher his writings would be safe from the understanding of all but the most knowledgable and most determined. it was an easy decision to make, he would get to work on decoding the ninjutsu book right after he studied his intact copies of his other text books. he would start with taijutsu while he still had some daylight hours to burn.

this was a short chapter, if i write another one after this, and i'm starting to think i probably will, i'll try to make it longer


	5. how to start

hey guess what i'm not dead. i got super drunk for a book i'm writing, but i drank to much and vomited all over my bathroom floor… was pretty sure i was going to die. i'm not much of a drinker under normal circumstances…

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"lgfdv iru wudlqlqj" Naruto wrote down in a note book.

he had finished translating the coded ninjutsu book, and it was mostly the same as the one he had taken from the storage closet with some minor differences. one such difference was that the ninjutsu instructor, Iruka-Sensei Naruto thought his name was, had written small notes in the corners of the book. small notes that explained and clarified things better than Naruto's storage closet copy did. that made it more valuable than the original copy.

at the moment Naruto was thinking of things he could do to train himself, he had some ideas. for history he would read his storage closet copy of the basic history text book, after that he would go to the library for more. the text book only explained the basics, people were meant to go to the library for more in depth knowledge. history may not have been the most interesting subject, at least Naruto didn't think so, but it was clearly important; otherwise the academy instructors wouldn't have messed with his copy.

for stealth class, he would read his text book and practice sneaking through the village for practice. he was under no delusions that he would be able to sneak past any ninja, but for now he wasn't trying to sneak past ninja. he was only going to try to sneak past the civilians, you had to start somewhere after all.

for taijutsu class he would read the book and practice the basics on his own, he already started working on his taijutsu prior to making this list of practice ideas. he would continue doing what he had been doing. the book was emphasized one thing, the purpose of the book was simply to provide the basics: how to punch, how to kick, how to dodge, how to block, how to parry, how to reduce damage taken if you couldn't dodge; block; or parry, how to fall, and how to roll. the book only taught the basics because each individual student was supposed to build their own style on top of those solid basics. Naruto liked Mizuki-Sensei but he didn't want to bother him with unimportant things, so he made a promise to himself that he would only bother Mizuki-Sensei with questions if he really couldn't figure something out no matter how hard he tried. building his own style sounded cool, but Naruto didn't know where to start, so he decided to watch other people and practice the moves from their styles that he liked the best.

for genjutsu Naruto decided to just read the book for now and decide what to do afterwards because other than that he had no idea what to do.

for ninjutsu Naruto had already read the entire book, but it couldn't help to look it over again occasionally. he would start by meditating to find his chakra like the book said he should, then he would start on the chakra control exercises because what good was chakra if he couldn't control it. Naruto wanted to fire energy beams out of his hands that could slice through anything, but that would probably be really hard to do. it sounded hard to do, which made chakra control even more important. after he had his chakra under control he would start using it to do… stuff… Naruto wasn't really sure what stuff he would do with it, but just using it couldn't hurt, it was his chakra after all. besides, maybe if he experimented enough he would actually manage to create his tentatively titled "super amazing beam of destruction fuck jutsu". the word "fuck" didn't have to be in the name, but it was a word that he wasn't allowed to say and that made it cool. he had to write that down in his note book,

"vxsfu dpdclqj efdp ri gfvwuxfwlrq ixfn mxwvx" Naruto wrote in his note book.

after that he got started immediately, he sat down and he opened his history text book. he didn't like history, so he decided to get it out of the way first. that way he would have the more exciting stuff to look forward to. if he left to till the end he would never be able to gather the motivation to do it.

this is chapter… something, i forget, i think five… maybe. please leave a review i like knowing what other people think of my work.


	6. NAILS!

i started this chapter directly after posting the last chapter. by started, i mean i wrote the first couple sentences. i suppose that was unnecessary clarification, because even just writing a few sentences is still starting the chapter. this isn't horseshoe, you can't almost start a chapter. you either did you you didn't and i did. this is chapter six by the way, in case you were confused.

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As the academy let out at the end of the school day, Naruto approached his ninjutsu instructor.  
"Iruka-Sensei?" Naruto queried.  
Iruka looked down at his student blankly "What is it Uzumaki-san", Iruka asked. His voice emotionless and cold.  
"thanks for the book, it was very helpful", Naruto replied undeterred. He turned around and walked out of the room before Iruka, his eyes widening slightly from surprise, could answer.

When Naruto finished reading his text books he had to look else where for additional help. Not that he needed that help immediately. He still had to practice what was in the books after all.

On that front he had made great strides in his practice sneaking around the villagers of Konoha. Naruto was already somewhat experienced in avoiding their notice given that he had been doing it since he could walk on his own, this was simply an extension of that. Nobody noticed him if he didn't want them to… well… that wasn't true. People definitely noticed him, but they were all ninja so they didn't count, he wasn't trying to sneak past them. Though perhaps he should try, sometimes the ninja who noticed him would point him out to the villagers who didn't… the jerks.

He was also doing pretty well in taijutsu class. Not because he was more skilled than the other kids, but he seemed to be more durable. He could take more punches before he really started feeling it. Naruto liked that about himself, it meant he could outlast all the other kids. Which didn't mean that he was slacking off on his independent taijutsu practice, his punches and kicks stopped hurting for the wrong reasons. They still hurt, but that was because he was punching and kicking a tree, not because he was punching and kicking incorrectly. He was fairly certain of that. For falling practice he just ended up doing tumbling summersaults around a field, backwards and forwards. He couldn't really practice parrying and dodging by himself, but for blocking practice he took to running at a tree as fast as he could and than trying to minimize the damage when he hit it. It was painful.

For genjutsu he was honestly stumped. He did the exercise that let him find his chakra, which wasn't as hard as the book said it would be. But even with access to his chakra he couldn't make a single genjutsu work. The book said that genjutsu required a lot of chakra control which he figured was probably his problem. He guessed that the only thing he could do was get better chakra control, so he started doubling down on his chakra control training.

Ninjutsu practice was fun. It was hard, but it was also fun. It was frustrating, but Naruto loved it. He had only managed to make one jutsu work so far, but it was an awesome one. The book said that the replacement jutsu was supposed to be the most chakra intensive jutsu. Naruto wasn't exactly sure what that meant, but the book clarified a bit when it explained that the replacement jutsu would take the most energy to use and would tire you out the fastest. Naruto however, didn't feel tired at all after using it. He didn't even feel tired after using it multiple times. It took him awhile to do the jutsu, but he would just have to practice his speed.

The chakra control exercises were also fun, not like the replacement jutsu, but they were still fun in their own way. There was the leaf sticking exercise, which advanced into leaf spinning and then leaf moving. The exercise fascinated Naruto, it had so many applications. If he could get good enough at it he could stick hundreds of knives onto his body and spin them around when he got within melee range. That would be awesome! Than there was it's opposite exercise, the leaf repelling exercise. Counter to the name, it was really much easier to use something besides a leaf. Like a ball or something.

As far as history went, he had read the entire course book. So for further information he would have to go to the library. However he found out every quickly that he wasn't allowed in the library. Or at least, the librarian wouldn't let him in. This was quickly fixed by the application of his stealth training. It was easy, she was just a civilian after all. Naruto imagined that it would probably be more difficult to sneak into the shinobi library. Once in, a veritable world of books was available to him. Everything from books on dentistry, to books on repairing your toilet, to a peculiar book about how to read braille… written in braille… Naruto wasn't there for any of that though, he was there for books on history; so books on history he would read.

The taijutsu book had a short section on handling different weapons. Kunai and shuriken obviously, and Naruto already started practicing with those. He had a whole stock pile of practice kunai and shuriken after all, but the book mentioned another weapon called senbon. Throwing needles, that sounded cool. It also sounded new. Kunai and shuriken were fine and all but Naruto didn't like the idea of following in other peoples ninja footsteps, he wanted to make his own path. He wanted throwing needles. The Problem with getting them was that they were only sold in ninja supply shops, and Naruto didn't think he stood a chance in hell of sneaking past the owners of a ninja shop. Luckily he found a work around, nails from the general store were roughly the same size and shape of senbon. They were also cheaper and it was much easier to sneak past the owners of the general store than it was to sneak past the owners of a ninja supply shop. That's not to say he stole the nails though, Naruto wasn't a thief. No, he simply bought the nails without anyone knowing that he bought them; except that they suddenly had more money and less nails.

One thing that caught his attention in the stealth book, was a sections on trap making. Trap making honestly sounded like a lot of fun. The book used a word he didn't know though "fuuinjutsu". Naruto didn't know what fuuinjutsu was but it was used to make stuff explode according to the book, and he just had to get himself some of that. Of course there was no way he could learn about fuuinjutsu if he didn't even know what it was. He decided to ask the old man, the old man knew everything. Also it had been awhile since his last visit and he wanted to know how the old man was doing.

A note. just one. the narration: Naruto isn't thinking all those big words, the narration is Naruto's basic understanding of things influenced by my own comparatively more wordy way of speaking.


	7. the seeds of a new style

Archibald Williams the man with twenty-one noses. That doesn't mean anything, but i would love to see a picture of him if anybody wanted to draw him. I'm starting to get slightly invested in this story. It would be a shame to stop now, but i still have other things to do so don't expect consistent updates.

"Well isn't this a surprise? I certainly hope this is becoming a habit for you." The Old Man intoned. "Fuuinjutsu" he continued,"is a fascinating subject, though perhaps a little complicated. Not to discourage you of course."

Naruto and The Third Hokage were sitting in Ichiraku Ramen, catching up with each other while eating the most delicious food in the world; in Narutos opinion. The Old Man stroked his beard in thought.

"What is fuuinjutsu? It's… jutsu as a written language, but it's also somewhat different. Anything you can do with ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu, you can do with fuuinjutsu and vise versa." The Old Man paused, "but certain things are more difficult to do with fuuinjutsu and other things are less difficult to do with fuuinjutsu" He continued.

"Like what?" Naruto Asked, "I read in my stealth book that fuuinjutsu can be used to make things explode!" He stage whispered with excitement.

The Old Hokage chuckled. "Well. That is certainly true, but you can also blow things up with ninjutsu. Let me give you an example: Sealing scrolls are scrolls with a fuuinjutsu pattern that let's you seal items inside. Sealing scrolls are considered one of the most basic and easy to make fuuinjutsu out there. To give a comparison, it's technically possible to seal one thing inside another using ninjutsu, but it's so difficult that only one shinobi has ever succeeded and he died before teaching anybody his secret. On the other side: Genjutsu can trap others in illusionary worlds of your own creation, as long as you have the chakra control it's easy. You can do the same thing with fuuinjutsu, it's just much harder." The Old Man explained at length.

That sounded new, it sounded unique, it sounded useful, it sounded cool. Who was Naruto to deny himself the simple pleasure of blowing stuff up. Who was he to deny des… No he didn't believe in destiny, who was he to deny this gift from lady luck? Naruto wanted this, Naruto needed this.

"Can you teach me?" Naruto asked.

"Teach you? No, i can't, i'm sorry Naruto." The Hokage said, honestly sounding regretful, "but, i can give you a beginners guide to fuuinjutsu. as long as you promise me one thing." He continued.

"What thing?" Naruto inquired.

"Promise me that you won't try test any explosive tags until you become a gennin, and even then only under supervision from your sensei." The Old Hokage requested.

Naruto was slightly disappointed by the request, he had imagined blowing stuff up immediately after he started, but he could understand why The Old Man had asked. Blowing things up may be awesome but it was also dangerous. He nodded slowly, he wouldn't break his promise.

"Good, we can stop by my office to get it after we eat. In the mean time though, why don't you tell me about what you have been doing? How are you liking the academy?" The Old Hokage asked.

"I met the prettiest girl i have ever seen" Naruto gushed, telling The Hokage about a pink haired girl he met who Naruto was sure was almost as smart as The Hokage himself.

Later in his apartment Naruto sat down at his kitchen table and started to read the beginners fuuinjutsu guide. It was interesting though a little complicated. Naruto wasn't going to let that stop him though, Ninjutsu was complicated and he was making headway with that; this wouldn't be any different.

He had been feeling stressed recently, he was focusing on too many things at once. He gave up on genjutsu and history for the most part in order to take some weight off his training routine, for different reasons. He stopped training genjutsu because even after all this time and practice he still couldn't get a single one to work. He wasn't giving up on it entirely, but he wasn't going to focus very much on it in the future. He gave up history because he was already ahead of the class, having read the entire book and some supplementary material from the library. He would start reading it again when the rest of the class caught up with him.

His stealth training was going excellently. He still wasn't able to sneak past other ninja, but he could hide well enough that the villagers weren't able to spot him even on the occasions that a jerk ninja pointed out his location. That was good, but it lead to the rare occasion when a jerk ninja, frustrated with not having ruined Narutos day in such a simple way, would instead physically drag Naruto from his hiding spot and place him in front of some quick to anger villagers. With his taijutsu training though the villagers were all pretty easy to escape from. The Jerk ninjas never attacked him for some reason.

Taijutsu was awesome, not only was Naruto getting better at throwing kunai and shuriken, he was also figuring out how to throw his nails. An unexpected benefit from his blocking and falling training, along with his higher than normal stamina and endurance, was that Naruto was starting to figure out a taijutsu style that worked well for himself. He found out that most of the other students panicked if he rushed right at them at the start and never stopped running as fast as he could. Some students like Sasuke and Shino reacted calmly, or at least reacted calmly after their first time dealing with it. Naruto found though that even when his opponent didn't panic, he was still able to fight better while running than he ever could while standing still. Moving at top speed made him a harder target to hit and all his training minimizing damage while running meant that even when he was hit he wasn't slowed down for significantly harmed. Shoulder checks were his bread and butter right now, but he was working or incorporating punches, and he hoped that in the future he would be able to work kicks in without slowing his pace. It was an extremely effective style, provided he never stopped. If he stopped or was stopped by something, he couldn't really do much but turtle up and look for an opportunity to take off running. Naruto called the style the rush style, because he couldn't think of a better name.

In Ninjutsu class Iruka-sensei had started treating him differently. Naruto didn't know if the change was good or not, Iruka-sensei stopped ignoring him so much and stopped speaking to him is such a cold tone of voice. Instead Iruka-sensei started staring at him more, with a confused look on his face, like he was trying to figure something out. As far as ninjutsu training went, Naruto still hadn't managed to do the transformation jutsu or the clone jutsu, but he wasn't too bothered by that. From what he read about those two jutsu in the ninjutsu book, they were basically borderline genjutsu. Naruto knew he was terrible at genjutsu so he didn't mind so much that he couldn't do them. He had managed to get his replacement jutsu speed up though. before it took him a whole thirty seconds to go through the hand signs, but now that his hands were more used to making the signs he could go thought the signs in under ten seconds. He shaved two thirds off his time, Naruto thought that was impressive. Though he didn't really have anything to compare it to.

Naruto was getting better at the chakra control exercises too. He could already do the leaf sticking exercise and the leaf repelling exercise, though he wasn't able to do the leaf spinning or the leaf moving exercises yet. The ones he could do gave him an idea though. If he stuck nails to his knuckles using the leaf sticking exercise his new taijutsu style could become really deadly, and he could use the leaf repelling exercise to shoot the nails off at distant targets before he got close enough to pound their faces in. Naruto wasn't good enough at the moment to do that, but that just meant he had to keep practicing. When he made the technique he would name it "The Nail Double Rush" because that sounded cool.

hey, i think this is my longer chapter yet. ok notes:  
1\. if the last chapter, i would say Naruto was about seven. give or take a month or two. it didn't take that long for him to translate the ninjutsu book, he did that in under a week. it did take him that long to get good enough at using the cipher in his every day writing that he was able to just use it as his normal writing in his journal. it also took him that long to gather the courage required to properly thank Iruka-sensei.

2\. in the next chapter i'll probably skip ahead to either Naruto at ten or Naruto taking his final exam in the academy plus teams. i'll try to make it the Naruto at ten one, but i might not be able to think of anything to right for that.

3\. Iruka is starting to treat Naruto differently because he's honestly bewildered. Naruto didn't react to his treatment of him in the way Iruka figured the Kyuubi would, what with the fact that he actually took the time to translate Irukas coded book. He also doesn't think the Kyuubi would actually thank him for making it's life harder in the short term even if it did take the time to translate it. The fact that Naruto acted so differently from Irukas imagined Kyuubi means that Iruka is starting to wonder if he was wrong, and he's looking for signs in Naruto that Naruto is human.


	8. hard work pays off

I wrote the notes for the last chapter at two in the morning, that's why they're really misspelled. i woke up and thought "eh, might as well do something" so i wrote out the chapter notes and posted the chapter… obviously i was tired so i misspelled some stuff and used the wrong spelling for other stuff.

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"Kiba, Naruto, you're up next. Get into the ring!" Mizuki-sensei called.

It was practical exams day at the academy today. At the end of every school week, each class held a small practical exam to see how everybody was doing with their training and to see what each student needed the most help with.

Naruto both looked forward to and dreaded practical exam day, though he liked it more than he dreaded it. The only class he was constantly bad at was genjutsu class, he still hadn't managed to make a single genjutsu work from his books even after three years of practice. His genjutsu teachers weren't any help, he didn't even know who they were. Though after all this time he did realize that they must be casting genjutsu on him as soon as he entered the class. He may not have been able to do genjutsu but that didn't mean he was ignorant of it. At this point he stopped trying to cast any genjutsu at all and he was instead focusing on breaking genjutsu.

Kiba and Naruto stood across from each other in the ring.

"Ready to get your ass handed to you dog breath?" Naruto taunted. Naruto didn't like Kiba, which used to bother him a little, but it didn't bother him so much anymore. When he first met Kiba, Kiba seemed like the perfect person for him to be friends with; but Kiba hated him on first introduction. Naruto wasn't sure why. All he knew was that Kiba once told him he smelled like a fox. Whatever the case, if Kiba didn't like Naruto, Naruto resolved to dislike Kiba as well.

"This won't be like last time." Kiba growled back.

"Ready, Start!" Mizuki-sensei shouted, throwing his hand down and leaping out of the ring.

Naruto was off like a shot. Sprinting towards Kiba at a break neck pace, his body tilted forward and his arms tucked in to minimize wind resistance. He closed the distance in a moment and threw a straight forward punch. Kiba jumped and barrel rolled over Narutos head, swinging at the back of his neck with a claw shaped hand. It would have connected had Naruto not spun on his heal the moment Kiba jumped and blocked with his arm while sliding backwards.

Kiba landed on the ground on all fours and slid to a stop. He didn't have any time to orient himself or stand up though because Naruto was back on him in a second. One of his feet rocketing forward in his patented sprint kick, a kick that transitioned smoothly into running again. Kiba only barely had enough time to get on his knees and block the kick with his crossed arms, but the kick still had a lot of force behind it and he was thrown to the edge of the ring but not out of it yet. Kiba just had enough time to stand up before Naruto shoulder checked him, the force of which threw Kiba out of the ring entirely. Naruto sliding to a stop just before the edge.

"Match, Naruto wins!" Mizuki-sensei called out, smiling at Naruto kindly.

Kiba picked himself up off the ground while cursing under his breath and walked back to sit next to his dog, Akamaru, who was growling at Naruto quietly. Naruto found that dogs didn't like him much. He didn't know why, but at this point in his life he was used to not being liked, so he wasn't bothered by it.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto shouted out, "Did you see how awesome i was!?"

The pinkete turned away from watching Sasuke-jerk, with the rest of his fangirls, as he got ready to fight Shino in the next match. She turned to glare at him sideways, positioned so that she could turn back to watch her crush as soon as she was done with Naruto.

"It's not like beating Kiba is Impressive Naruto-baka, you beat him all the time and you're hardly the best in the class." She Carped.

"But i beat my time!" Naruto exclaimed.

It was no use though, Sakura turned back to watch Sasuke-jerk and ignored him. Naruto sighed and walked away.

Besides genjutsu class, Naruto honestly did look forward to practical exam day. In stealth class, in order to provide an unbiased challenge, all the students where sent through a stealth based obstacle course. They didn't have to be fast because that wasn't the point of the course, so you could go through it as slowly at you wanted to. No points would be taken off for doing it slowly, though extra credit points were awarded if you did it quickly and still weren't caught. So far, the only ones to make it through the course and get those extra credit points were Naruto, Sasuke, and Shino. Though Shino didn't get the extra credit points very often.

The less that was said about Narutos scores on the genjutsu practical exams the better…

His scores on the ninjutsu practical exams were… mixed. He had much better chakra control these days and his hand seal speed meant that he got top marks when doing the replacement jutsu, but his clone jutsu was a bit lackluster and he still couldn't do the transformation jutsu. He could only kind of do the clone jutsu because, while it required more control than the transformation, it also required more chakra. He couldn't use a small enough amount of chakra to use the transformation jutsu, but since each clone required the same amount of chakra as one transformation and the jutsu didn't require more control for each new clone; he could simply make five clones instead of the requested two and the clones would come out fine. They didn't look so good when he tried to limit himself to two. As far as the chakra control went, he mastered the leaf sticking, the leaf repelling, and the leaf spinning, and he was starting to work on the leaf moving.

Iruka-sensei started to treat Naruto differently, going back about a year or two. He was almost friendly. He would smile at Naruto in class, which didn't ever happen before Naruto thanked him for the book. Of course he wasn't any more friendly towards Naruto than he was towards any other student, but it was still a major improvement over how he used to treat Naruto. He actually called on Naruto in class and answered his questions.

Outside of the academy Naruto had been making great strides in his training. He was confident that after all his time spent on training his stealth he could sneak past most gennins and some chunnins if they weren't specifically looking for him. The Villagers were needless to say, not a challenge any longer.

Naruto Had good enough chakra control now that he could use "The Nails Double Rush", the technique he invented years ago. It was as glorious as he imagined it to be, the only issue was with re-arming his knuckles with more nails in a quick and timely fashion. He sort of had to fumble around in his nails pouch to get more nails on his knuckles after he fired the ones before, which wasn't a good thing. The entire point of having nails on his knuckles was to elevate his style above merely dangerous and make it deadly. If he didn't manage to re-arm himself quickly than all he accomplished with "The Nails Double Rush" technique was disarming himself. He could also spin the nails around like a top, but that wasn't really helpful.

In his studies into fuuinjutsu he discovered that sealing scrolls were more amazing and useful than he had ever imagined when he started. Originally he had only been studying the sealing scrolls in order to pass the time until he was able to make explosive tags. now though, he still wanted to make explosive tags but they were only a bonus to the gold mine that was sealing scrolls. Naruto discovered something very special about sealing scrolls. He discovered that sealing scrolls didn't actually create a pocket dimension to seal items inside of, that would be hideously complicated, they actually broke down the items into pure chakra and sealed that inside the paper itself. You got your items back when you unsealed them instead of just a burst of chakra because the seals recorded the physical and chemical structure of the item before breaking it down. This had a few ramifications. The first was that when a sealing scroll was ripped in half, it didn't release the original item. Instead the sealing scroll released an amount of chakra equal to that which had been sealed into it. That meant that if you sealed something large and dense enough and than ripped the scroll, it would actually explode. The second was that the more items you sealed into a scroll and the more complicated the items, the more intelligent the sealing pattern would have to be in order to tell one item apart from another and tell one piece of an object part from another piece. That was why scrolls to seal dead bodies into were so expensive. Dead bodies were complicated, so if you didn't get a scroll that was intelligent enough to tell the heart from the brain, when you unsealed the body you would probably just get a pile of human paste that had a uniform consistency. Naruto had use for such unintelligent sealing scroll though. He had an idea for an attack that wouldn't work without stupid sealing scrolls.

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hey, that was chapter eight. I actually think that was the longest chapter yet. ok notes:

style that Naruto created is incredibly flawed but also incredibly dangerous, if he can work out the flaws or otherwise minimize them. the most obvious flaw is that if he ever stops he becomes a sitting duck until he can start running again. Another flaw is that the style is a constant drain on the users stamina. That's not such a huge problem for Naruto, but it would be for almost anyone else. it's dangerous because by constantly moving Naruto makes himself a harder target. Not only that though, by forcing his opponent to retreat he can set the pace of the whole battle which gives him a major advantage.

you just saw was a typical battle between Naruto and Kiba, not that it goes exactly like that every time, but nine times out of ten Naruto beats Kiba. There's a few reasons for that, but the primary one is that while Kibas family style is pretty dynamic, Narutos is the most dynamic of any style i have ever heard of. The second reason is that Akamaru is not allowed to fight along side Kiba in academy spares, if he was Kiba would probably win against Naruto more often.

doesn't like Naruto for a combination of reasons. Kiba and by extension the whole Inuzuka family is very in touch with their instincts. i would say they are ruled by instinct and intelligence equally. The reason Kiba doesn't like Naruto is because for one his mom told him to stay away from Naruto which instantly made him wary of Naruto. For two, Naruto smells like fox and Kibas instincts tell him that foxes are untrustworthy, which only furthers his dislike for Naruto. if he actually took the time to get to know Naruto he would like him. The problem is that instinct creates a more immediate, if not quite accurate, impression that intelligence does. Kiba probably won't start to like Naruto until they're forced to work together on some mission down the line.

4.i figured that it never made sense that Naruto could do the transformation technique but not the clone jutsu, surely they would take the same amount of control right? you're essentially creating an illusionary body separate from your own in both cases. it's just that in the case of the transformation jutsu you're making yourself appear to be someone or something else and in the clone technique you're making illusionary copies of yourself. the thing is though that, with the transformation technique you're only creating one illusion. with the clone technique you're creating multiple, so surely it takes more chakra.

sprint kick is basically just stepping forward with a whole lot of extra force, the highest it can go is just below waist level and that's stretching it a bit. The kick was designed to let Naruto take out an opponents knees, making them a sitting duck against his onslaught. He used it against Kiba during that fight because while Kiba was on all fours, his head was around knee level. When he raised to his knees, Naruto ended up kicking him in the stomach instead.

got onto his feet faster than he could get onto his knees before because Narutos sprint kick knocked him him as well as back. so it was less that he got to his feet, and more that Naruto kicked him onto his feet.

7.i figure i would include this in case you were wondering. basically everyone is wearing the same outfits they do in cannon, except that Naruto isn't wearing an orange coat. he is wearing orange pants, but his shirt is just a black t-shirt with a white Uzumaki spiral on the back.


	9. the gennin exam

a note i forgot to add in the last chapter. There's a reason Sakura hasn't and isn't going to hit Naruto in this story. see i always figured that the only reason Sakura hit Naruto in cannon was because she felt she could get away with it. I don't remember an occasion when she ever hit anybody else… except Ino in that chunnin exams fight, but that doesn't count. She doesn't hit anyone else because she doesn't feel she can get away with it, at the start of cannon she still thinks she's stronger than Naruto and she also knows Naruto's not going to fight back anyway. Here now that Naruto is stronger at the start, she knows she's not stronger than Naruto. She knows Naruto is stronger than her so she never started hitting him, she never wanted to risk it in case he decided to take offense and beat her up. Anyway, this is chapter nine.

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"Ok man, relax. You've trained for this, there's no way you're not going to pass." Naruto comforted himself.

He had no reason to feel nervous, not logically anyway. Maybe he wasn't the best in the class, but he definitely wasn't the worst either. He shouldn't feel nervous, but all the rationality in the world couldn't calm his nerves. He had to pass, He had to. If he didn't he would be held back a year and he would miss his chance to be put on the same team as Sakura-chan, unless she failed as well; but there was no way that was happening.

"Ok, let's just take this one test at a time. The academy is a about to let in, don't think about the whole gauntlet. I need to focus all my attention on whatever test i'm currently doing" Naruto Whispered to himself, as he stood outside the Academy building with everyone else. They were all waiting for the staff to prepare the different tests, which required a little bit of preparation.

The Doors slammed open with a bang and the gathered students quieted down as Mizuki-sensei stepped out.

"Alright, no running, no yelling, and no complaining. Everyone get in here and go to whatever class you normally have first. Then go to each class you have normally after that in order. When you're all done with you're tests gather in room fourteen and wait to be called on for an evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses, and to see whether or not you passed. This may be the most important practical exam of your time in the academy." Mizuki-sensei intoned as he waved all the students into the academy building.

Naruto had history first, he wasn't expecting any trouble on this exam. History may not have been one of his main areas of focus, but he still kept up in it. He was actually pretty sure he was still more knowledgeable than most other students in the class, given that he actually took the time to read supplementary reading material from the library instead of just relying on the academy text book.

First question: How did the three Sannin get their team name?

Ok… Naruto knew the answer to that, but he didn't know if from the academy text book. Maybe it was an intentionally more difficult extra credit question… Though he didn't know why they would put an extra credit question at the start instead of at the end, it didn't matter so much really. He still knew the answer.

"The Sannin were given their name by Salamander Hanzo after losing a fight to him" Naruto wrote, before continuing on to the next question.

Second question: name three teams who had a major hand in Konoha winning the Third Great Ninja World War.

Ok yeah, that was… closer to something you would find in the academy text book. It still wasn't quite there, but it was sort of fringe. Like the text books gave a basic overview of the war but didn't really go into details. This didn't seem like an extra credit question though. So… maybe these were extra hard questions that were going to be scattered throughout the test? That made more sense. So the next question was going to be easier for sure, there's no way they would put three hard questions in a row.

"Team Namikaze, lead by Minato Namikaze. The Sannin, lead by Hiruzen Sarutobi. Team InoShikaChou lead by Shikaku Nara." Naruto put down, moving on to the next question.

Third question: When the First Hokage founded Konoha he used the the influence over demons granted to him by his bloodline to split the biju amongst the other villages as a peace offering. Which ninja villages were granted which biju?

Uh… What? There's no way that was a test question, it was so obscure he almost didn't know it.

Naruto looked up from his test and glanced quickly around the room, before turning his head back down to his test. He kept looked at the teacher out of the corner of his eye and waited for him to look away, He didn't want to be accused of cheating. When the teacher looked away, Naruto very quickly Stole a glance at the test papers of the students on either side of him. It was just as he feared.

First question: who was the First Hokages granddaughter?

Naruto sighed, He had been hoping that the various sensei had given up on trying to screw him over. Looks like this was their last ditch effort to make him fail. To bad for them though, he knew the answers to all these questions. They wouldn't be tripping him up. With a grumble He finished the rest of his test, but instead of handing it in at the front, he folded it up and stuck it in his pocket. He was going to give this test to Iruka, as one of the only teachers he could trust. Naruto wasn't going to give the other teachers a chance to "lose" his test paper.

The Stealth practical exam was like all the previous stealth practical exams, just way harder. Naruto constantly practiced stealth though, so it wasn't actually too difficult for him. He completed it pretty fast. Though he wasn't sure if he completed in fast enough for extra credit points.

While waiting to run and after running the obstacle course, students were directed to take a small extra credit paper exam on fuuinjutsu in the stealth classroom. Naruto wasn't worried, he had been studying fuuinjutsu for years now.

Naruto rose and left the room with the other students. They had the taijutsu exam next. The taijutsu exam was set up like a tournament, with Mizuki-sensei and one or two other chunnin examiners watching the fights between the students. You didn't have to win the tournament to get a high score though, you didn't even have to win your first fight. You just had to put up a good fight.

Naruto drew a number lot out of the bag that was passed around and waited for his turn. Though he did pay extra attention during Sakura-chans fight with some other nameless Uchiha fangirl. Sakura-chan won, as Naruto knew she would.

"Seven vs eight!" Mizuki-sensei called out, "who has seven and who has eight!"

Naruto looked down at his lot. He had eight, so he moved onto the stage and waited. Across from him was another Uchiha fangirl, Ami, he thought her name was. He wasn't one-hundred percent sure though. She looked determined.

"ready? Fight!" Mizuki-sensei called.

Naruto was off and in Ami's face the moment the fight started. Ami looked panicked, but she managed to get her guard up; which amounted to nothing as Narutos fist rocketed forward and drove into her stomach. Ami was thrown several feet and onto her back. Naruto would have continued but Ami held up a hand to get him to stop as she vomited, emptying the contents of her breakfast onto the stage. Several people in the audience gagged.

"I forfeit." Ami gurgled.

"Winner by forfeit: Naruto Uzumaki!" Mizuki-sensei shouted, "Somebody please clean the mess off the stage!" He continued, looked pointedly at one of the other chunnin examiners.

The chunnin examiner looked vaguely disgusted but sighed and got a bucket of water to wash away the mess.

"Seventeen vs eighteen" Mizuki called.

Chouji and Hinata moved out onto the stage. Hinata looked self conscious and timid, Chouji was slowly eating a bag of chips.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Chouji asked mildly.

"Oh, um, um, o-ok" Hinata stuttered.

So Chouji and Hinata played rock, paper, scissors against each other to decide the winner of the match.

"I forfeit" Hinata mumbled when she lost the game.

"Ok, winner by forfeit: Chouji… that was… odd" Mizuki stated, as Chouji and Hinata shuffled off the stage.

"Five vs eight" Mizuki-sensei announced.

Naruto jogged back onto the stage, only to find himself facing across from Sakura-chan. Which was the exact opposite of what Naruto wanted right now. Sakura-chan seemed nervous but determined. Naruto didn't want to hurt her. He would just have to end the fight as quickly and as painlessly as possible.

"Start!" Mizuki-sensei barked.

Sakura immediately jumped back to get some space, but it only delayed the inevitable for a second at most. Naruto Sprinted past her, to her surprise until she felt his hand in an iron grip around her arm and she was jerked with him, being dragged along behind him uncontrollably. Until Naruto got to the edge of the stage, at which point he turned on his heel and hurled her off it. Naruto wasn't the best a grappling, that move only worked because he was so much stronger and faster than her. He also wasn't the best at throwing people, which is why Sakura tumbled across the ground a skidded to a stop against a training log instead of landing somewhere softer. Naruto winced, he hoped he hadn't hurt her too bad.

"Winner by ring out: Naruto Uzumaki" Mizuki-sensei declared.

"Fourteen vs fifteen" Mizuki-sensei called.

Sasuke marched onto the stage. Only to be forced to walk back off when Shikamaru forfeited immediately, so he wouldn't have to move. He had already won one match today, that was enough and he refused to move until the next test.

"Winner by forfeit: Sasuke Uchiha" Mizuki-sensei called.

"Seventeen vs nineteen" Mizuki declared.

Chouji and Ino walked out onto the stage.

"Rock, paper, Scissors?" Chouji asked again.

"hmm, sure." Ino allowed, only to knee Chouji in the balls and roll his curled form off the stage when she lost.

"Winner by ring out: Ino Yamanaka" Mizuki-sensei winced, crossing his legs along with most of the guys and a surprising number of girls.

"Nine vs fourteen" Mizuki-sensei called.

Sasuke and Shino walked out onto the stage.

"Start!" Mizuki barked.

From Narutos own experiences fighting both Sasuke and Shino he knew that Sasuke had a very reactive style, while Shino had a very defensive style. Neither wanted to attack first, but Sasuke had less patience than Shino which is why he attacked first.

Moving closer cautiously Sasuke threw a few probing punches which Shino simply stepped back from before being forced to block Sasukes following kick. Sasuke swerved around Shinos retaliating punch and launched one of his own which Shino couldn't dodge, as he was too close. Instead he turned body to allow his shoulder to intercept the punch early, which reduced the damage taken. Shino returned with a rising knee, forcing Sasuke to jump back and give him some room. Things continued like that for a few minutes, they approached each other, had a short exchange and one of them forced a break. It was clear to Shino at this point who was winning. So when they next broke he stepped back and forfeited.

"Winner by forfeit: Sasuke Uchiha" Mizuki-sensei announced.

Sasuke looked frustrated.

"Nineteen vs twenty-two!" Mizuki declared.

Kiba and Ino walked out onto the stage. Ino looked nervous.

"Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Ino begged.

"Sure." Kiba replied.

Ino looked shocked that Kiba would agree to a game after what she did to Chouji, but never the less she walked up to Kiba; getting her knee ready just in case she lost. Only for Kiba to knee her in the cunt before they even played. She crumpled and curled in on herself, gasping in shocked pain; while Kiba picked her up over his shoulder and dropped her out of the ring.

"Uh… winner by ring out: Kiba Inuzuka…" Mizuki-sensei trailed off.

Mizuki gathered himself for a moment "Naruto Uzumaki vs Sasuke Uchiha." he murmured, a lot more subdued than normal.

Sasuke got over his shock fairly quickly, but was still slightly wide eyed as he walked out onto the stage. Naruto joining him after a pause.

"Start!" Mizuki-sensei called.

Sasuke spun past Narutos initial charge, continuing through into a back fist aimed at the back of Narutos head. it connected due to Sasukes exceptional speed and timing, but did barely any damage due to the fact that Naruto was already moving in the direction of the punch. he came off with little more than a bump.

Naruto circled back around and tried again, charging at Sasuke. Sasuke spun to the side again, but Naruto was expecting that, he shot his arm out to clothesline Sasuke. Sasuke ducked in an instant, continuing through with his spin and sweeping a leg out to trip Naruto. Naruto tumbled but he wasn't slowed down in the slightest, he was back on his feet running in a second.

He circled back around for a third attempt, this time was different though. When Sasuke spun out of the way, Naruto spun on his toes to face him and was on him in a moment. He threw a sprint kick to force Sasuke off the ground and plowed straight into him, lifting Sasuke to carry him with him while unloading punch after bone shaking punch into Sasukes ribs and kidneys. He ran towards the edge to throw Sasuke out.

Sasuke was not about to let that happen though. He was in a lot of pain at the moment, but working through it he brought his knee up into Narutos chest; taking Narutos breath away and slowing him but not stopping him. Sasuke wasn't done though. He pushed himself away, grabbed Narutos head and hit in the face with another knee strike. Naruto felt his nose crunch and blood flew everywhere as he was forced to let go and stumble back. Sasuke unleashed a kick into Narutos stomach, doubling him over. He continued through and sent a spinning round house at Narutos head. Naruto managed to avoid damage by collapsing on his hands and knees in a sprinters pose. Then, as Sasuke was recovering from his missed attack, he took off again. He dashed right into Sasuke, hitting him with a shoulder check and pushing him back towards the edge. Sasuke was ready this time though, and Naruto hadn't even grabbed onto him. Sasuke waited until they were just at the edge before spinning out of the way one last time, he grabbed Narutos shirt and use the momentum of his spin to throw Naruto out of the ring.

"Winner by ring out: Sasuke Uchiha" Mizuki-Sensei announced.

Naruto was tired, out of breath, and in a lot of pain so he didn't bother watching as Sasuke destroyed Kiba. He wasn't actually all that upset that he lost. He usually lost against Sasuke, so while he would have been ecstatic if he won; he was honestly just happy that he did well.

Naruto felt he deserved a break so he didn't even go to the genjutsu practical exam, he simply waited outside the exam room and recovered. He probably wouldn't have even remembered taking the exam even if he tried though, given the genjutsu sensei's habit of catching him in one as soon as he entered the room.

Naruto sighed in relief as he entered the ninjutsu practical exam room. Before he sat down he caught Iruka-sensei's attention and handed him his folded up history test.

"it's my history exam, it's different from everybody else's copy. I'm giving it to you because you're the one i trust most not to "lose it accidentally"" Naruto explained, making air quotes at the appropriate times.

Iruka-sensei had a look of resigned understanding on his face as he excepted the folded test.

The ninjutsu practical exam was rather easy compared to the exams from the other class. All he had to do was demonstrate that he could perform the three basic academy jutsu: the transformation, the replacement, and the clone jutsu. At this point the replacement and the clone jutsu were second nature to him, so they were easy. The transformation was harder but he could still pull it off if he transformed into something or someone large. For the purposes of this exam, he chose to transform into an obese merchant he saw occasionally in the central market place. The illusion wavered a bit, but it held.

Finally grateful that all the exams were finished, and confident that he did well enough to pass, Naruto made him way to room fourteen.

The students were being called on in alphabetical order, since Narutos last name started with a "U" he had to wait for a while as other students were called out of the room. The called students didn't come back in.

"Uzumaki Naruto!" someone finally called.

Naruto confidently made his way into the other room, in the other room were the sensei from each class plus the Third Hokage. The Old man, Iruka-sensei, and Mizuki-sensei were smiling at him. The rest were glaring rather hard, including one lady who Naruto had never seen before that he could recall, but given the presence of the sensei from his other classes he assumed she was his sensei from genjutsu class. So at least now he knew what she looked like.

"Uzumaki Naruto" The Old Man intoned. "each of your teachers are here to tell you what your strengths are, and describe what you need to work on. ignore me for the moment."

"Uzumaki-san, you did excellently in history class." the history sensei bit out, before smirking. "But you didn't turn in your final exam, so i'm afraid you fail that."

"oh, i forgot. here you go Hokage-sama. this is Narutos exam, he gave it to me earlier because he saw that it was different from the exams of his peers." Iruka-sensei cut in, handing The Old Man the folded piece of paper.

"you can't just do that! you still fail!" the history sensei exclaimed.

he was cut off from saying more when the Old Hokage held his hand up. "i'll allow it." he unfolded the paper and looked it over. "this exam is different from the standard exam, if fact it's quite a bit harder. how do you explain that Mizuho-san?" the Old Sarutobi quizzed softly.

The history sensei quailed under his gaze. "i, uh, Uzumaki-san is my best history student. i felt he would be up to the challenge, so i gave him a harder test." Mizuho-sensei whimpered.

"well, you were right. He was up to the challenge, he got every answer correct. I think he deserves extra credit for scoring one hundred percent on a harder than standard test, don't you Mizuho-san?" the Old Man asked.

"Yes, of course." Mizuho-sensei verified.

"Very, well. continue with the evaluation" the Old Hokage replied, waving his hand for the next sensei to pick up.

"Uzumaki-san performs consistently well in stealth class, and he got a score of ninety-two percent on the final stealth practical." the stealth sensei stated stonily.

"Uzumaki-sans taijutsu style is an interesting sight to behold. It can be best summarized as an overwhelming offense. The strengths of the style are obvious to anyone to takes the time to observe it, but the weaknesses are as well. Work on your speed Uzumaki-san, that more than anything will make your style a force to be reckoned with in the future." Mizuki-sensei beamed at him.

"Uzumaki-san is abysmal at genjutsu, it's clear he has no talent for it. he didn't even show up for the genjutsu practical exam, so of course he failed it." the genjutsu sensei sneered

"the only thing i can say is: work on your chakra control" Iruka-sensei stated.

"having added everything up and heard from all your sensei. Congratulations Naruto, you passed.

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ok… this chapter is too long for me to put everything in the notes, so i'm not going to write them out at all. if you have any questions post them in your review, i'll answer some personally and maybe right some notes from this chapter in the heading of the next chapter.


	10. the fake real gennin exam

Due to the nature of Narutos fighting style, any fighting exchange he's doing well in is going to be incredibly fast and brutal. also i put Sarutobi Hiruzen in that final exam room because i thought "Well, he's old and he cares about the entire village like it's his family. surely he would take time out of his schedule to meet all the children who took the test at the end of the school year. after all it's only one day out of the year. if they failed he can let them down easy, and if they passed he gets to meet and familiarize himself with his future soldiers." it makes sense. This is chapter ten by the way.

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"Naruto!" Mizuki-sensei called, "good job on passing the exams, I knew you could do it" He congratulated, jogging up to Naruto as he left the academy grounds.

"Mizuki-sensei? Oh, thanks! I was just going to go celebrate. You want to come?" Naruto asked.

"Actually I'm here for a very specific reason. I was assigned to give you your real exam." Mizuki replied.

"What? Real exam? But I already passed the gennin exams." Naruto said.

"Come on Naruto, you didn't seriously think that was it did you? No the exams you just went through were only to help us weed out those totally unfit to be a ninja. That test was just to see if you had potential. This next test tells us whether or not you're strong enough to be a ninja." Mizuki explained.

"Oh come on. Seriously? Alright, just tell me what the test is." Naruto sighed.

According to Mizuki-sensei Naruto just had to sneak into the Hokage towers and retrieve a Mock intelligence scroll. He was told that it would be the biggest scroll in the building. Made so as both a way to help people taking the test identify the correct scroll to take, and to make it extra challenging to get away unnoticed.

It was easy to get into the building, all he had to do was walk in while looking like he belonged there. Admittedly the testers who were no doubt watching probably wanted him to actually attempt to sneak in, but Naruto figured that he could probably get away with just walking in. After all, he did just walk in and he wasn't stopped. The testers probably would take any points off his final score unless he was stopped, or at least he hoped that was the case.

Finding the scroll was also easy. Stealing it however was less easy.

"Naruto what are you doing here?" Sarutobi spoke as he watched Naruto lift the scroll of seals.

"Holy Shit!" Naruto exclaimed, almost leaping into the air from the shock. He hadn't noticed the Hokage until just then. "Seriously? I failed the test already?! No, no wait. That doesn't make any sense. Why would they expect me to sneak past the Old Man, he's the Hokage for crying out loud!" He rationalized. "That means the test is still going on." He continued, "Old Man, you didn't see me ok? Don't tell anyone I was here, you don't want me to fail the test do you?" Naruto whispered dramatically, before he picked the scroll back up and started to tip toe out of the room.

"Wait, Naruto. What test are you talking about?" The Old Hokage asked, Drawing Narutos attention.

"Huh?… The real gennin exam? Mizuki-sensei told me about it. He told me that I wasn't a real gennin yet and that to become one I had to find and steal this scroll from the hokage tower… Is… Is that not right?" Naruto asked, suddenly unsure of himself.

The Hokages thoughts raced for a moment, but he kept a calm face on the outside. What exactly was going on? He could only think of one likely scenario, but it wouldn't do to jump to conclusions. Being the Hokage, he came to a decision in an instant.

"No, you're correct. Sorry about that Naruto, I was confused because you're not taking the right scroll. Here, let me get you the real one." He replied, taking the scroll of seals from Narutos hands. The Old Sarutobi went into a room to the side of his office and returned with an almost identical scroll. "Sorry about that Naruto, Students usually don't start this test until tomorrow, so I hadn't set the real scroll out yet." The Old Man apologized, giving the new scroll to Naruto.

"No problem Old Man, just don't tell anyone you saw me ok?" Naruto grinned, opening the window and leaping out carrying the blank decoy scroll.

The Hokage watched him leave for a second, then he said a single word, "go". With that, the darkest corners of the room shifted and a team of ANBU followed after the boy.

Naruto got to the meeting place a little bit early but he didn't have to wait for long for Mizuki-sensei to get there.

"Naruto! you passed, and you got here early. Good job!" Mizuki-sensei congratulated, as he landed in the clearing. "Just give it to me and the test will end." he grinned.

Naruto smiled excitedly as he handed over the huge scroll. This was it, he was finally a Gennin. No more tests! …Hopefully.

Mizuki-sensei checked over the scroll briefly, seeming satisfied he put the scroll on his back. "Say Naruto, how would you like to be promoted straight to Chunnin?" He asked nonchalantly.

Naruto stared at him for a moment, "That can happen? How? What do I need to do!?" He exclaimed.

"Whoa, Whoa, let's not get ahead of ourselves now" Mizuki cautioned, "How do you feel about Konoha Naruto?"

"What? I love it!" Naruto grinned.

"Huh, really? Are you sure? I know that not everybody treats you nicely, are you sure you're not angry at them? Are you sure you don't hate them?" Mizuki dug.

Narutos smile faded and he frowned, tilting his head to look at the ground between them. "I know i probably should, but i don't hate them for that." Naruto looked back up, his head tilted and he had a strained smile on his face. "They have a good reason, I'm sure of it. I don't remember it, but I must have done something to them. That's ok though, because someday I'll make it up to them." He finished.

Mizuki grimaced, "This conversation didn't go the way I hoped it would. That's fine though. I didn't need you to come with me, it just would have made things easier." Naruto dropped his smile again and frowned in confusion as Mizuki continued, "Naruto, do something for me and in return I'll tell you what you did."

Naruto nodded hesitantly.

"Turn around a close your eyes," Mizuki requested, continuing once Naruto did as he asked. "Twelve years ago the Kyuubi attacked the village, it killed thousands of villagers and hundreds of ninja"

Naruto could hear the grass and dirt crunch under Mizuki's sandals as he started treading towards Naruto.

"It annihilated the country side and set the village on fire, until one man stepped up to the challenge and defeated it. That man was the Fourth Hokage. The history books say he killed it, but you can't kill a demon. The best you can possibly do is seal it away, so that's what he did. The demon is still around. It's just different now. Naruto," Naruto jumped a little in surprise at being addressed directly. "You wanted to know what you did to make the villagers hate you. When the Fourth sealed the demon, he sealed it into you. You are the Nine tailed fox." Naruto froze in shock. His eyes flew open and he looked unseeing at the forest in front of him. "Now die for your sins, that's the only way to make it up to them." Naruto heard steel rub against steel, but he was too shocked to care.

Thunk.

Next thing heard sounded like flesh impacting against wood. An ANBU jumped down in front of him and looked down at him. He heard brief sounds of struggle behind him, but he was frozen. The ANBU grabbed his shoulder, and he didn't react. He felt a rush of air and saw scenery shoot past and suddenly he was back in the Hokage's office, standing in front of the Hokage who looked like the weight of the world was pushing down on him. The Hokage waited for him to say something, but Naruto didn't. He just stood there, his brain struggling to process what he had just been told. The Hokage was content to wait though, so he did. Minutes ticked by before Naruto said anything.

"O-old man" Naruto croaked, his throat suddenly very dry. "Is what he said true?"

"No… Not entirely" The Hokage whispered. "You are not the Kyuubi… But you do have the Kyuubi sealed inside of you. I was planning on telling you when you reached Chunnin. I'm sorry Naruto."

Something in Naruto strained and whined, but it didn't break.

Well that's that. If it wasn't clear: Mizuki was trying to recruit Naruto to leave the village with him. the thunk was Mizuki being slammed into a tree by an ANBU member. the reason Naruto turned around and closed his eyes is because he still trusted Mizuki as his teacher and as a friend. i had a bit of writers block when i was trying to figure out how to make that scene go down, that's why this chapter took so long. if you have any other questions or comments that i didn't address here, leave a review.


	11. teams

smoop poops dedoop.

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Naruto was uncharacteristically quiet while waiting for Iruka-sensei to arrive and announce the teams. He couldn't help but think back to his discussion with the Old Man the previous day. He was the container of the Kyuubi. He didn't know what that meant for him exactly, but at least it explained all the terrible stuff that happened to him. Each Kyuubi container, because there had been others before himself, inherited the massive negative karma of the Kyuubi itself. Karma didn't effect most people that much because there was almost no way they could possibly do so much good or bad in their lives that the universe would seek to punish or reward them, but the Kyuubi containers inherited hundreds of years of negative karma as soon as the Kyuubi was sealed in them. Meaning that from the moment they became a container, life started shitting on them. It was almost a relief to know that he personally hadn't done anything to deserve his terrible life, but he also felt something else. He didn't know what it was. He had never felt it before. He didn't like it though…

Iruka-sensei arrived in class a few minutes late, looking faintly troubled. Well, he looked faintly troubled for any ninja savvy enough to actually tell. To the new graduates he didn't look any different from normal.

Everyone quieted down upon his arrival, well used to the routine that they were just about to be free from.

"My sensei, when I was a student used this moment to give a long winded monologue of a speech. I couldn't stay awake through that, and from what my fellow graduates said, neither could anybody else. So I won't take up too much of your time here. I'll make this short and sweet: This is it. You all went through a lot to get here, and you worked really hard. Your struggles aren't over however, things are only going to get more difficult from here on out. You may falter, but you may never stop moving forward. You may stumble, but you may never stay down. You may crack, but you may never break. Ask for help if you need it, offer help to those who need it. Make the Hokage and the village proud." Iruka-sensei intoned. Falling silent for a minute after he was done.

The gathered Graduates paid rapt attention, Then started shifting uncomfortably when his speech ended and silence fell.

"The teams are as followed" Iruka-sensei continued, reading down the list.

Naruto stopped paying him so much attention, he just daydreamed while waiting for his name to be called.

"Team seven will be composed of Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto perked up when his name was called, "Yamanaka Ino" Eh… That was ok, Naruto supposed. He would rather have been on a team with Sakura-chan, but he had nothing personally against Ino; except that she was an Uchiha fangirl. "Uchiha Sasuke".

"Dammit" Naruto muttered, even as Ino squealed in joy. Naruto didn't particularly like Sasuke, for both personal and not so personal reasons. On a personal level he disliked Sasuke because Sasuke was Sakura-chans crush. On a not so personal level Naruto disliked Sasuke because Sasuke was just generally a jerk. Ok yeah his family was massacred four years previous, and Naruto felt sympathetic to him for that, But that didn't excuse his terrible attitude and unfriendly demeanor. He wasn't the only one to suffer in the world.

"WHAT?!" Sakura screamed, "Sensei that's not fair! I worked really hard to be on Sasuke-kuns team!"

"HA! Suck it forehead girl! True Love triumphs!" Ino laughed.

"SHUT UP!" Iruka-sensei barked, continuing after they quieted down. "As I was saying, your sensei is Hatake Kakashi."

"Team eight will be composed of Nara Shikamaru, Haruno Sakura," Iruka paused to glare at Sakura who was started grumbling upon hearing who was on her team. " and Aburame Shino. Your sensei will be Yūhi Kurenai."

Team nine is still in circulation. So team ten will be composed of Akimichi Chouji, Hyuuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba. Your sensei will be Sarutobi Asuma." Iruka stopped to take a breath, "Your sensei will be coming to pick you up after lunch, so for now just take the time to familiarize yourself with your team mates.

Everybody got up and rearranged themselves around the room, in order to sit next to their team mates. except Sasuke who just sat quietly and glared out the window as people moved around him.

Naruto at first tried to actually talk to his team mates, but that proved futile. Sasuke refused to acknowledge anything anyone said to him, and Ino mostly ignored Naruto in favor of fruitlessly attempting to start a conversation with Sasuke. In the end, Naruto decided that he might as well do something in the mean time, so he took his coded note book out and started reviewing and writing notes on things he wanted to try in the future. Eventually Ino got Bored of attempting to talk to Sasuke, which usually didn't happen; she usually got into a fight with Sakura or something before she even had a chance to get bored, so she turned her attention to Naruto. Looking over his shoulder at his note book, she couldn't make heads or tails of it. Her dad worked in the T&I division so she thought that it might be code, but that didn't help her decipher it. Naruto let her look, he would have been worried about her solving his writing but he had long since graduated from simply using the sand cipher. He now used both the sand cipher and his own created cipher. He alternated between the ciphers on every other line.

Time past quickly in this fashion and lunch arrived before they knew it. Ino turned to ask Sasuke if he wanted to go get lunch with her, only to find that he had already disappeared. She turned back to Naruto who closed his note book, got up, and started ambling to the door.

"Hey, you wanna get lunch or something? You know, since we're supposed to get to know each other and stuff…" Naruto sighed, looking back over his shoulder at her and waiting for her answer.

"Might as well." She said, getting up with a sigh and following after Naruto.

When lunch ended everyone gathered back in the classroom and teachers started coming to pick up the various teams immediately. Eventually all the other teams had been picked up and team seven was the only team left in the classroom.

Ino supposed that their sensei was probably just running a little late, so she turned and started chatting with Naruto. He wasn't as bad she previously thought, of course he wasn't as good as Sasuke-kun, but he was certainly more fun to talk to. That was the good thing about her team though, She got to be around Sasuke for hours of uninterrupted time every day and her other team mate was actually fun to hang out with as well.

you can only talk for so long in at one time before you run out of things to talk to and patients can only be stretched so far before it breaks, so it's understandable that both Naruto and Ino were absolutely fuming by the time Kakashi actually arrived several hours late.

"WHAT THE FUCK! BAKA-SENSEI! WE'VE BEEN WAITING HERE FOR HOURS! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY HAVE MADE YOU THIS LATE!" Ino screeched in anger, breathing heavily.

Kakashi paused, having just slid the door open, to stare at her for a moment. "I got lost on the road of life." he lamely replied.

"I'm going to stab you." Naruto promised.

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that was chapter eleven. ok notes:

1\. the reason that Sasuke and Naruto are on the same team even though Sasuke is the rookie of the year and Naruto is not the dead last, is because Kakashi specially requested Naruto and Sasuke was always going to be on his team. Kakashi is the only other loyal konoha ninja that has a fully functioning sharingan. Sakura could not possibly be on their team though. The only reason she's on their team in cannon is because of their specific class ranking. Sasuke was rookie of the year, Naruto was dead last, and Sakura was perfect middle of the road; placed there in order to provide a balance of strength to the team. since Naruto isn't dead last in this story, Sakura could not be on team seven. so i had to choose between Ino and Hinata. I chose Ino because i like her better and also i wanted everyone to be on a team where they would grow as people. There's no way Kakashi would know what to do with a cripplingly shy girl like Hinata.

2\. i Broke up the new generation of InoShikaChou Specifically because it's a well known combination. what kind of ninja village would put a weaker version of a well known team on the field. there's no way the other villages don't have plans for what to do when they run into the older squad. the only reason the older generation is still able to function as a team so well is because they already have the experience and individual strength needed to overcome whatever weaknesses the enemy may try to exploit. a new generation of the same team would have all the same weaknesses without the same ability to compensate… that's stupid.

3\. I placed Sakura, Shikamaru, and Shino on the same team and placed them under Kurenai because they are the three characters with the least chakra capacity. they would benefit the most from having a chakra control focused teacher.

4\. Hinata needs to get out of her shell. so i placed her on a team with Kiba, a loud and brash kid who's likely to be high energy and try to draw hinata out of her shell. Chouji, who's a calming presence that she can retreat to if she's ever being overwhelmed by Kiba's energy. Asuma, someone who will be gentle but stern with her, and thus a good father figure to replace her actual father.

5\. That other cipher i mentioned in case you were curious is a cipher called the… well i forget what it's called… i'll probably remember by the end of the next chapter. anyway it's another simple cipher, you just switch the letters for their mirror letter. "A" becomes "Z" "hello" becomes "svool"


	12. the real real gennin exam

This is chapter twelve. Try to contain your enthusiasm… Oh yeah, It will be awhile before I even start working on chapter thirteen. After I finish this chapter I'm going to be working on writing the pilot episode for… Well a show that I hope to get produced. Don't expect it to be on TV any time soon, that's not how television works. I'll need to get this thing made before I can pitch it to any tv stations.

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"Meet me on the roof in five minutes" Kakashi-sensei told the gathered gennin, disappearing in a puff of smoke soon after.

Sasuke got up and walked out of the classroom, making his way to the roof. Ino stood up as well and started to follow him with a huff.

"Wait Ino, help me with this desk" Naruto called after her.

"What?" Ino asked, stopping to goggle at Naruto as he lifted a desk. "What are you doing?"

"Look this guy needs to be punished somehow for showing up so late. I'm going to throw a desk at him, you can either grab the chair or another desk if you want." Naruto replied.

"He's a Jounin! there's no way we're actually going to hit him." She returned.

"Yeah i know, but think about how satisfying it will be if we do." He persuaded.

Ino stared at him for a moment before her lips curled into a slight smirk and she picked up the chair, following Naruto up to the roof.

When Sasuke got to the roof Kakashi was already there, so he sat across from him and waited for the other two to arrive. They weren't kept waiting for long. Thirty seconds later the door to the roof access door burst open as Naruto and Ino came charging out swinging a desk and a chair respectively. Sasuke watched in shocked silence as Naruto hurled a desk at Kakashi with a grunt of exertion, Ino chose to swing her chair like a bat instead of throwing it. It all amounted to nothing though because Kakashi, with nothing but a slight widening of his one visible eye to show his surprise, avoided both attacks like it was nothing. The Desk flew past him over the balcony and landed on the ground, three flours down. Ino stumbled forward after missing, having honestly put everything into hitting her sensei.

Kakashi tilted his head to look mildly down at the desk which had managed to land on it's legs. "You're lucky these things are build so sturdily or else you would be paying for a new desk. Right we-" He was interrupted when Ino came back in for another swing, which he caught in his hand.

Ino lurched when the chair was wrenched out of her hands and thrown down with the desk. She scowled at Kakashi angrily but stopped attacking him regardless, sitting down between Naruto and Sasuke.

"Now that that's done, why don't we get started with introductions. None of you seem like you're ready to introduce yourselves just yet so i'll go first. My name is Hatake Kakashi. I like porn and…" He tapped his chin thoughtfully, "great literature. I dislike… hmm, i don't feel like telling you. My dream for the future is none of your business." He finished with an eye smile.

If you could kill people by glaring at them it would be a legit ninja tactic. So being the best ninja out of the four of them he wouldn't have died, he would just dodge or something. That being said, a civilian would definitely die if faced with the glares Kakashi's students were currently focusing on him.

"Introduce yourself next desks mc blondy." Kakashi said.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like Ichiraku's ramen, the Old Man, Iruka-sensei, and Sakura-chan. I dislike… my terrible luck. My dream for the future is to become the strongest Hokage ever." Naruto huffed, finally relaxing somewhat.

"alright, now you female one"

Ino couldn't possibly scowl any harder than she already was, "My name is Yamanaka Ino. I like Gardening, sushi, and Sasuke-kun. I dislike dieting. My dream for the future is to marry Sasuke-kun and become a strong kunoichi who my dad can be proud of." she got out.

"And finally, the perpetually angry one."

Sasuke frowned heavily at Kakashi, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like tomatoes. I dislike almost everything else. My dream… My goal is to Bring my brother to justice and revive my clan."

"With that out of the way, Todays meeting is over. Meet me again tomorrow at training field seven for your real gennin test." Naruto tensed at Kakashi's words.

"What? real gennin test? But we already passed the gennin exams" Ino spluttered, her surprise finally breaking her expression away from the constant scowl it had been since meeting Kakashi.

"Come now, you didn't seriously think that was it did you? No the exams you just went through were only to help us weed out those totally unfit to be ninja. That test was just to see if you had potential. This next test tells us-"

"SHUT UP! You won't fool me this time traitor! i'm telling the old man on you!" Naruto shouted, Interrupting Kakashi mid speech. He had his arm straight, his finger pointing right at Kakashi's face. Everybody looked at Naruto in wide eyed shock, and followed him with their eyes when He leapt past Kakashi and over the balcony. He landed on the desk below and took off running towards the Hokage tower at top speed.

"So… that happened. meet me at training ground seven at eight AM tomorrow and don't eat breakfast, you might throw up if you do" Kakashi finished lamely.

"OLD MAN! I THINK KAKASHI-SENSEI IS ANOTHER TRAITOR!" Naruto Hollered, bursting into the Hokage's office and knocking over a chunnin holding a stack of paper work; sending the papers fluttering to the floor.

The Old Sarutobi looked at Naruto languidly over his paperwork covered desk. He glanced at the chunnin as the last of the paperwork rained down on him and then looked back at Naruto. "I assume you have proof?"

"He tried the same trick as Mizuki-sensei, telling me about another gennin exam. He used the same exact words and everything!" Naruto said.

the Hokage let out a breath and chuckled lightly. "No, Naruto. This time it's real. Each jounin teacher gives their gennin squad a test to see if they're fit to be ninja."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me this yesterday? I just ran out on a team meeting before he could even tell me what time to meet him at." Naruto whined.

"Well, I wouldn't worry about getting their on time too much. Kakashi is always late to everything by at least several hours. If i were you, i would arrive around ten AM. if you show up at that time, you'll probably still arrive before him, but it's better to be safe than sorry." The Old Hokage explained.

—

"You're late" Sasuke snarled, clearly annoyed from Ino's attempts to get his attention.

"Hey, shut up bastard. I didn't know what time to be here, and do you see Kakashi-sensei around here? No? Well than i'm not late." Naruto retorted, and indeed Kakashi was not yet at the meeting place. Much to the increasing anger of the two who had been waiting there for the last two hours. "I wouldn't hold your breath on him showing up any time soon. According to the Old Man, Kakashi is always at least three hours late."

"The Old Man?" Ino asked, "who's that? I thought you were an orphan."

"Oh right, i suppose most people don't call him that. I mean the Hokage" Naruto chuckled.

"The Hokage?!" Ino Quizzed in disbelief.

"Yeah I never knew why, but the Old Man has always been around. Ever since i was little I've been close to him." Naruto nervously scratched the back of his head.

"Don't lie Naruto. Why would the Hokage, the strongest person in the village, take time out of his day to talk to some random orphan?" Ino paused for a moment, but seemed to think of something and continued. "No offense."

"I'm not lying!" Naruto exclaimed to Ino's look of disbelief and Sasuke's apathy. "Fine, you don't have to believe me, just know that i know that Kakashi-sensei is always late by at least three hours. When did he say we were supposed to meet?"

"Eight AM" Ino grumbled.

"Ok than, we'll be waiting for another hour at least. Hope you brought something interesting to do because if not, this is going to be a boring wait." Naruto replied, even as he took his notebook out.

Ino sighed explosively and turned back to badgering Sasuke for attention, who in turn just glared at the ground incredibly hard.

—

"Yo" Kakashi-sensei called, finally arriving at the meeting place an hour later to the sight of Naruto reading his notebook, Ino crouched down; drawing shapes in the dirt with a stick, and Sasuke still just standing and glaring.

"You're late Bakashi-sensei." Ino scowled, the assembled gennin turning to face him.

"Well, you see, an old black-cat lady needed my help carrying groceries so i had to help her, but i also had to take a different path after i did or i would suffer from terrible luck for the rest of the day." Kakashi eye smiled.

"We hate you Bakashi-sensei" Ino muttered in exasperation.

Kakashi smiled and pulled an alarm clock out of his pocket. He walked over to a training post and set it down, then he pulled two bells on strings out of his pouch and tied them to his waist. "The goal of this test is to get one of these two bells away from me before the timer goes off, which is set to go off at noon."

"That's in an Hour!" Ino complained

"Very good Ino, it's nice to know that you can do basic math. Yes, you only have one hour to get a bell. Anyone who gets a bell passes, anyone who doesn't get a bell fails. Before you say anything" He held up a hand to stall any interruptions, "I know there are only two bells, that means that at least one of you will fail" he explained to the dismay of his gathered students. "Come at me with the intent to kill, or you'll never get a bell." His students tensed. "Ready? Go."

Sasuke jumped into the trees surrounding the clearing and Ino dashed into the tree line herself, circling around to get a bead on Kakashi to use her mind transfer jutsu. Naruto however stayed right where he was.

"You know, you're a little bit weird compared to the others." Kakashi commented.

Naruto didn't bother to answer him, he was getting ready to start his attack. He reached into his nail pouch and used his super strong leaf sticking exercise to stick the nails to his knuckles. Four to a hand, giving himself a wickedly dangerous weapon. He set himself, leaning forward with his hands tucked in and in a moment he was gone from his spot, rushing Kakashi at top speed. Before he even got in range though, he punched forward with one of his hands; confusing those watching until the nails on the hand he punched forward launched off his fist and rocketed at Kakashi.

Kakashi simply turned to the side to dodge the nails and side stepped to dodge Naruto who punched at him with his second hand while fishing more nails out with the first. There wasn't much Naruto could think to do to fix his problem of being unable to rearm himself quickly when he did the nails double rush attack, but he learn to minimize the drawback by only shooting off one hand at a time.

Naruto had no delusions of being able to beat Kakashi in a straight up fight, He may have been in the upper portion of the class in terms of combat ability but Kakashi was a jounin. There's no way he had achieved that rank without being a monster in combat, which meant that Naruto's only chance of beating him was to catch him off guard. That's why he started with the nails double rush. He was going to try something new on every attack until he ran out of tricks or Kakashi disengaged him. With that in mind he circled back around to activate his clone pain train technique. He flipped through the seals for the clone jutsu and created three clones, one in front of him and two behind. He rushed at Kakashi again in a straight line with his clones. The first one reached his sensei, who didn't react, and continued not to until Naruto reached him; then Naruto felt Kakashi's hand close around his wrist. Kakashi spun around and hurled Naruto back the way he came.

Alright, just because the clone pain train didn't work didn't mean that no illusions would work at all. Naruto created ten more clones, though none of them were apparent. Kakashi raised his one visible eye brow when nothing seemed to happen after Naruto went through the seals for the clone technique a second time. This technique was one of Naruto's most surprising jutsu. The clones weren't visually apparent, but that was because Naruto had created all ten clones on his exact location. meaning that he was sharing space with ten illusionary clones. He threw his hand forward again and again launched his nails. This time though, his real nails were accompanied by a veritable storm of illusionary nails. Yet again Kakashi wasn't effected too much, he eye smiled approvingly at the technique but otherwise he just dodged the real nails and didn't bother with any of the fakes.

So apparently illusions just wouldn't work on Kakashi, at least the level of illusions Naruto had access too didn't work on Kakashi. Naruto had more tricks up his sleeve though. Once again he sped at Kakashi, sprinting as fast as his legs would carry him. This time he didn't attack head on though. He used the leaf repelling exercise to boost his jump up over Kakashi, he unrolled a storage scroll from his pouch and held the seal facing down at Kakashi who looked up at him mildly and waited.

"Big rock no jutsu!" Naruto shouted, channeling chakra through the scroll. This was one of his few truly deadly attacks, he kept it hidden and refined it for years. The results were truly astounding.

Sasuke's mouth dropped open, Ino's eyes bulged, Kakashi's one eye blinked in shock. In a puff of smoke, a huge boulder appeared directly between Kakashi and Naruto. Gravity grabbed a hold of it and it dropped fast, right on top of Kakashi. There was a crash and dust billowed into the air as the boulder hit the ground. Naruto landed on top of it, but he leapt down to inspect the landing zone. He didn't think he succeeded in killing his sensei with that attack, but maybe if he was lucky the attack was surprising enough that he didn't dodge in time. Naruto was hoping to Find Kakashi with a shattered leg. Instead all he found was a splintered log, crushed under the massive weight of the boulder. Kakashi had escaped with a replacement jutsu.

"Damn!" Naruto cried, sealing the boulder back up and sprinting off into the surrounding woods in search of his wayward teacher.

—

When Kakashi disappeared from the clearly Naruto had been fighting him in, Sasuke went on the hunt. He swept back and forth across the entire training ground, as quickly and as stealthily as possible. He found Kakashi standing in another clearing, reading a book. Sasuke knew he was stronger than Naruto, but he also wasn't so stupid as to waste an opportunity to attack Kakashi while he was distracted. He needed to find the perfect angle. Coming around to the side of the clearing that Kakashi was closest to Sasuke got ready, he slowly ran through the seals for the fire flower jutsu and with the same deliberate slowness he gathered his Chakra. While doing it slowly would normally just be a dumb thing to do, a gradual increase in built up chakra instead of a sudden burst was less likely to attract the attention of someone who was distracted.

Kakashi was, of course, not as distracted as Sasuke thought he was. So when a number of small fire balls suddenly flew out from the edge of the clearing and started speeding towards him, he merely jumped over them without even looking up from his book, only to get riddled with shuriken while in the air.

There was no way it was that easy, Sasuke refused to believe that. If Kakashi was defeated this quickly and easily than not only was he wasting Sasuke's time, but he also didn't deserve his rank as a jounin.

His suspicion was proven correct when in a puff of smoke, Kakashi turned into another log.

"Phew, you almost got me there" Kakashi commented almost mockingly, as he strolled back into the clearing. He put his book away and stopped across from Sasuke.

"I'm going to take that bell from you. I'm not like Naruto or Ino, I'm better." Sasuke stated with conviction, getting into a fighting stance.

"Well, this is your chance to prove it." Neither Kakashi or Sasuke paid attention to the small bird that landed on a tree on the edge of the clearing and started watching them with an unnatural attention.

Sasuke started his attack by throwing a brace of shuriken at Kakashi in order to probe his defenses and distract him, then he pulled out a kunai and ran in after them. Kakashi pulled out his own kunai and blocked the incoming shuriken. He casually dodged a kick and parried Sasuke's every Attack with his kunai.

Kakashi wasn't here to spar with Sasuke though, He was here to evaluate his prospective students strengths and determine whether or not they were fit to become ninja. He didn't want this to last any longer than it had to. He wanted Sasuke to use his strongest attack. Luckily for him, if there was one thing he was good at, it was infuriating people. To that end, while still effortlessly dodging and parrying all Sasuke's attacks, He reached back into his equipment pouch. Sasuke tensed in preparation even as he kept up his relentless attack, then he grit his teeth in a sudden rage when Kakashi pulled his book back out and started reading it again in the middle of the fight.

"How dare he" Sasuke thought to himself, barely thinking about what he did next. He disengaged and jumped back, flipping through the hand seals for the great fire ball jutsu. He would show Kakashi. He would get him with his strongest attack.

"Great Fire Ball Jutsu!" Sasuke roared, firing off an enormous attack that moved towards Kakashi at high speed. The attack hit and there was a explosion of fire as light filled the surrounding area. When the fire went out there was nothing left but a scorch mark on the ground and in his temporary emotional state, Sasuke felt a sudden but mild dread that he may have killed his teacher.

All thoughts to that effect were instantly silenced when Sasuke felt a pair of hands grab his ankles and saw himself get pulled into the ground until only his head was still above.

"That was impressive" Kakashi drawled lazily as he pulled himself out of the ground, "I'll give you that, but you're not the only student to have impressed me over the course of this test. Cya" he waved over his shoulder as he walked out of the clearing to find his last remained student.

—

Ino dropped the connection between the bird she took over to watch the fight between Sasuke-kun and Bakashi-sensei, Sasuke-kun was just as strong as she thought. Of course that made it all the more terrifying that Bakashi-sensei beat him without even really trying. She wouldn't have been able to last a second against Bakashi-sensei. Maybe she should have trained her taijutsu more while she was in the academy. She needed to find Bakashi-sensei again and use her mind transfer jutsu to get a bell. Then she could give the other one to Sasuke-kun and he would love her forever. She felt a a little bad for Naruto that he would fail this test and… well she actually didn't know what would happen when he failed the test. Bakashi-sensei never actually told them the consequences for failure. She supposed that he might get sent back to the academy, but that shouldn't be a problem if it happened. He already passed the genin exam once, it should be easy for him to do it again. Best case scenario, failing the test didn't mean anything and they would all stay a team. Ino didn't think that was very likely though. More realistically, he would be allowed to stay a ninja, but would be taken off the team and put into some kind of specialized training program for support ninja. Maybe she would see him as a courier ninja at some point in the future.

While thinking about all that and moving through the forest in search of her prey, she was jerked from her pondering when a wave of leaves briefly obscured her vision. When it cleared she saw a broken and beaten Sasuke stumbling towards her. Kunai and shuriken sticking out of various parts of his body, while he bled everywhere. He was clearly very close to death.

"Ino-chan… Help me." Sasuke coughed bloodily.

Ino felt a moment of panic and horror before she forcefully calmed herself. This was literally impossible, She just saw Sasuke get buried in the ground not three minutes ago. There was no possible way he managed to dig himself up, get beaten half to death, and make his way through the forrest to her in the time between then and now. That meant that this was an illusion.

"Kai!" Ino cried. breaking the genjutsu with a smirk, until her logic caught up with her emotional high gained from so easily seeing through the trap.

"Wait, who cast that genjutsu?" Ino wondered to herself, back in a panic as she realized that the only one around who had the skill and current ability to catch her in a genjutsu was Bakashi-sensei. That meant that he found her before she found him. That meant she would have to fight him… She was not prepared for this.

"Hmm, I won't say I'm impressed, but I will say I'm surprised" Bakashi-sensei commented from behind her.

"Uh…" Ino articulated, turning around to see Bakashi-sensei crouched down on a tree branch above. She crouched down and picked up a hand full of dirt. She only had one shot at this and she needed to make it count. "Do it now Naruto!" she bluffed, tensing to move in case Bakashi-sensei looked away.

Bakashi-sensei didn't look away.

"I mean uh… LOOK A DISTRACTION!" Ino screamed, pointing over Bakashi-sensei's shoulder and throwing her hand full of dirt to the ground like a smoke grenade. Without checking to see if her ploy worked, she dropped to her knees and flipped through the hand seals for the mind transfer jutsu; casting it as fast as she could and shooting her consciousness out towards her sensei.

Looking at this desperate tactic from an outside perspective you would see just how much this didn't work. Kakashi was clearly unimpressed with her distraction attempt, the hand full of dirt hit the ground and just sort of sat there, and Ino didn't even aim particularly well given that she was closing her eyes. In the end, all Kakashi had to do to avoid her attack was drop off the branch.

The alarm clock went off in the distance and Kakashi sighed as he gathered Ino's body up in his arms in order to tie her to the training logs. Out of the three of his potential students, Ino did the least to try to get a bell.

—

When Ino got back to her body, she found herself tied to a training log with Sasuke-kun and Naruto sitting on either side of her, and Bakashi-sensei crouching down in front of them.

"Well" Bakashi-sensei eye smiled, "I'll tell you one thing. None of you are going back to the academy, and that's because i'm going to fail you out of the ninja program entirely"

The good mood was instantly erased when they heard the rest of his sentence. Ino Saw movement out of the corner of her eye and then Sasuke-kun was dashing at Bakashi-sensei almost faster than she could see.

There was a flurry of movement and suddenly Sasuke-kun was on his stomach with Bakashi-sensei sitting on top of him, holding Sasuke-kun's arm behind his back.

"You're all so childish, do you think being a ninja is a game? To be a ninja you have to be prepared to make hard decisions. For instance" Bakashi-sensei intoned, pulling a kunai out and holding it to Sasuke-kun's throat. "Naruto, Kill Ino or i'll kill Sasuke."

Ino felt a momentary panic as she glanced over at Naruto.

"No." Naruto replied decisively to the combined relief and worry of Ino.

Bakashi-sensei stared at Naruto for a moment before removing the kunai from Sasuke-kun's throat. "Well, i wasn't going to kill Sasuke anyway." He got off Sasuke-kun and pushed him back towards them. "I'll give you one more chance at the test after lunch, I'll even tell you the point of the test in order to give you a better chance."

"Point?" Ino Asked quizzically. "Wasn't the point to just get a bell from you?"

Bakashi-sensei chuckled insincerely, "no, the point of the test was teamwork. I wanted you all to work together. If you had you would have had a much better chance to succeeding."

"Work together? But Bakashi-sensei, there are only two bells. Even if we worked together, one of us would have failed for sure." Ino exclaimed.

Bakashi-sensei gave her a dull look at her unconscious continued use of his new apparent nick name. "Exactly, this test wasn't to see if you were strong enough to be a ninja. This test was to determine if you had the necessary mind set to make a hard choice and make a sacrifice for the good of the rest of the team." The gathered genin took on looks of consideration when he finished talking. "Now, i brought lunch for three. Naruto, Sasuke, you two are not to give any of your food to Ino as punishment for doing the least during the test. Don't test me, you're on thin ice." He glared at them, handing out a lunch to Naruto and Sasuke. He took his own lunch and disappeared.

Ino felt her stomach rumble as Sasuke-kun and Naruto picked up their own lunches. She hadn't eaten breakfast that morning because Bakashi-sensei told her not to. While Sasuke-kun dug into his lunch, Naruto looked down at his own in consideration. Then he turned and offered the entire thing to her. She gaped at him.

"What are you doing?" She whispered.

"I ate a big breakfast, so I'm not hungry. You need this more than I do" He replied, with a slight smile.

"But you'll get in trouble." She Insisted, glancing quickly around in search of Bakashi-sensei

Sasuke-kun Just watched from the side. He wasn't going to do something that would potentially harm his chances to become a ninja. If the other two wanted to risk their futures he would let them, but he wasn't going to get involved, and besides he actually was quite hungry.

Naruto smile grew bigger, "I don't see Kakashi-sensei around here do you?" He cut her binds with a kunai and pushed the bento box into her hands.

"Thanks." She smiled back, removing the lid and digging into the food inside with her chop sticks.

Suddenly Bakashi-sensei appeared in front of them looking thunderous. "YOU DIDN'T DO WHAT I TOLD YOU!" he roared, Naruto and Ino frozen in front of him. "SO NOW! YOU! pass!" He finished, starting loud and ending at a normal volume.

"Huh?" Both Naruto and Ino chorused.

once i get the pilot episode of my thing produced, i may even post the script here… i don't know though. Ok notes:  
1\. i made Ino dislike dieting because she definitely would have tried it like every Sakura did in cannon, but she's from a ninja clan. there's no way her family actually let her continue it after a certain point. It would have screwed up her ninja career in the short term and just generally stunted her progress in the long term. Also dieting is a thing you do to get thin, not something you do because it's fun. I don't think anybody actually likes dieting.

2\. if you're looking for an imagination aid when imagining how large the boulder for Naruto's big rock no jutsu is, it''s about the size of a short bus.

3\. there's a difference between conscious thought, and subconscious thought. when i write out the narrations, it's; as i explained before; an objective narration influenced by the subjective and subconscious of the person being narrated. Meaning when the narration calls Kakashi Bakashi, it's because the objective narration is being influenced by Ino's subconscious. Most of the time people don't actually think words when they think anything at all. The Only time i reliably think in words is when i'm writing, the rest of the time i just have a constant stream of songs playing in my head with only the occasional actual word. Yet i seem to have no problem functioning in my general life or even puzzling out complex problems.

4\. the nick name Bakashi is now firmly lodged in Ino's brain. At this point she's barely even aware that that's what she's calling him.


	13. routine

wow, ok. it took longer than i thought to write the pilot… writers block, you understand… or maybe you don't. this is chapter thirteen… in case you weren't already aware of that. also i found that i'm actually more productive when i focus on multiple things at once, than i am if i try to focus on only one thing. Not saying i can multitask… that's insanely difficult to truly do. what i mean is that my mind will rapidly switch between focuses no matter what i do. so if i let it and just move with the flow, i shift from progressing on one subject to another. if i try to focus on one thing though, my thoughts and attention still shifts, i just don't do anything when it shifts to a subject i don't want to focus on.

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The thing you have to realize about D rank missions is that they're usually simple jobs. Just chores to help increase teamwork and communication without putting new gennin in any danger. That being said, they weren't the most stimulating of activities in the world.

"OH MY KAMI! THIS IS SO BORING!" Naruto cried in frustration, pausing from his task weeding a civilians garden beside his teammates.

"Shut up" Sasuke glared as he continued to weed his third of the garden. Not that he wasn't annoyed with the given task, but yelling about it didn't make the situation less annoying.

Ino sighed explosively. She had just been seconds away from yelling herself. She was kind of glad that Naruto did first, because now she knew it annoyed Sasuke-kun. She still needed to relieve stress though, so she settled for punching a weed until its juices ran into the dirt. It wasn't as satisfying as she imagined shouting would have been, but it did the job.

"Remember, only two more missions to go for today" Kakashi-sensei called cheerfully, not looking up from his smut.

His students glared at him.

"We hate you Bakashi-sensei" Ino said.

—

"AHH! Get them off, get them off!" Kiba cried in panic as children swarmed his form.

The children themselves were just happy to have someone to play with, and Kiba's team watched from the edges.

"A-Ano… Should we d-do so-someth-thing?" Hinata stuttered shyly, watching Kiba flail under the press of bodies.

"This didn't happen like i thought it would…" Asume-sensei trailed off, though he suspected that he probably should have seen this coming. Small children and small animals usually mixed like a lit match and gasoline, they exploded into energy and didn't calm down for a while… also sometimes things got destroyed. Their mission to baby sit the children at the orphanage was going both better and worse than he expected it to.

Chouji just munched on a bag of chips. He was glad it wasn't him in there.

Team eight stood in the middle of a clearing waiting. Shino waited patiently, Sakura waited impatiently, and Shikamaru waited lazily. Kurenai-sensei stood calmly to the side and watched.

An outside observer might be confused as to why they were just standing around. If that outside observer actually voiced the question they would be informed that team eight was currently on a mission to find and return the daimyo's wife's cat, Tora. At the moment they didn't know where it was though. Oh they knew what general area it was in, that's why they were standing in that clearing in particular instead of literally anywhere else in the village, but they didn't know where it was specifically. So they were waiting in the clearing for Shino's bugs to find the cat and report back.

Without warning Shino turned and started walking out of the clearing. "Tora has been located" He intoned.

Sakura made to follow him, before noticing that Shikamaru wasn't walking with them. She turned back and saw that he was still laying on his back, watching the sky. "Come on Shikamaru" She huffed.

"Why? You two will be enough to catch it, you don't need me" Shikamaru replied lazily.

"Listen you lazy Idiot, either you come with us under your own power, or i'll drag you and smack you against every tree and rock we pass by" She growled back.

Shikamaru thought about that for a moment. On the one hand he would be forced to walk, which would make sleeping hard. On the other hand, While he could lie down, he would also be in a lot of pain, which would also make sleeping hard. The choice was obvious than. He got up with a sigh and followed after the other two.

—

The good thing about having a jounin sensei was that now, Naruto was allowed to work on explosive tags. They were comparatively way easier to make than storage seals, all you had to do was make a combination of seals that failed explosively when put together. This could be done by simply putting two completely contradictory seals next to each other and than loading them with chakra. The best explosive tags though, were specifically designed to create the largest possible explosion. This was usually accomplished by making a chakra battery to hold a large amount of chakra, with a seal built into the containing seals designed to break the battery on command. Than putting other seals outside the battery, that were designed to specifically direct the force outward. If you wanted a fiery explosion, the elemental conversion seals were also included in the outer shell. With all that in mind, simply creating explosive tags was one of the easiest things Naruto had ever done. That was a good thing, but he was trying something slightly harder than simply creating an explosive tag. Naruto was attempting to make a directed explosion, which was more difficult than one might imagine. He had to make a seal that both failed explosively and also contained the failure. He effectively had to create a two tiered seal, something he had never done before. To explain it better to someone who had no experience with seals, he basically needed one set of seals to explode, and another set of seals to kick in a hundredth of a second later to create a narrow cone around it so the explosion could only go in one direction. The timing was of vital importance. If the containment seals kicked in too late, the tag would just explode like a normal tag, and that would be bad for what Naruto wanted it for. Needless to say, he didn't expect to get this right away.

Sasuke's training was less complicated. It mostly consisted of chakra control exercises, and Taijutsu practice. Though he also occasionally worked on his weapon control.

Ino impressed Kakashi the least during the bell test. as a result her training was the simplest, if the most brutal. Just simple stamina, speed, and strength training. Multiple laps around the training field, dragging a tire attached to her with a rope. Push ups, squats, sit ups, pull ups, and finally taijutsu forms. All of this enforced on her by Kakashi who didn't trust her to do it on her own.

This was just the start of their training days though. After that, their sensei would make them spar against each other. Something that Sasuke and Naruto seemed to enjoy, but Ino definitely did not. She wasn't a good enough combatant to hold her own against either Naruto or Sasuke. Though she tended to last slightly longer against Sasuke, that was only because Sasuke's taijutsu style was less viciously fast than Naruto's.

At the end of the day, when everyone was exhausted from sparing and personal training, Kakashi would have them spar against him. the three of them together against himself. He did that for multiple reasons. The first, and most obvious, reason was that working together against him helped build their teamwork. The second reason was that he wanted them to get used to fighting while exhausted, as they would likely be forced to do that in the future. The third reason was that if they were used to fighting at their weakest, they would be that much better when fighting at their strongest.

Needless to say, team seven training days were fairly brutal.

—

Team ten training sessions were usually a relaxed affair. The assumption was that the various clan heirs would get better and more personalized training at home, so the only thing they really worked on during team training was teamwork exercises. That wasn't to say that Asuma wouldn't help his students with something if they asked. they just didn't ask. Though, Asuma did notice Hinata's self confidence issues. To help rectify that, he made Hinata his official second in command. She was to lead all team training exercises. He didn't comment on whatever she may have failed at unless she brought it up, and he made sure to praise her when she did something well. She liked Flower pressing and was interested in plants, so he bought her a book on plants and their medical uses.

He didn't really have to guide the other two. They had their own motivations and directions, and all Asuma had to do was make sure they didn't hurt themselves.

—

Team eights training sessions were somewhere between team sevens and team tens. Kurenai didn't make her students train until they were exhausted, but she still held team training sessions. She let her students train on their own for the first half of the session, but then she sat everyone down and had them work on chakra control while she explained the basics of genjutsu theory. Later she would have them work of easier genjutsu while she explained more complicated genjutsu theory. then even later, she was planning on having them practice catching each other in genjutsu while they did their personal training. She didn't expect them to get much farther than that before the chunnin exams.

the only note i have is that Kurenai's teaching her students basic genjutsu even though there was an entire class dedicated to it in the academy. The academy class on the subject was more about recognizing when you're in one and describing the various kinds, without going into too much complicated detail. Like the academy class would have told them the most basic of the basics, and not gone too much farther into the theory than that.


	14. authors note

hey, my computer broke. so until i get it back, hopefully with the hard drive still intact, i'm not going to be able to write more of this story. I'm actually writing this while sitting down at a computer in the mac store at my local mall... Anyway sorry for the inconvenience.


	15. Same destination, different road

chapter fourteen. would you take the ability to teleport if you left a layer of skin behind every time you did? answer in the comments if you so desire. also, something i didn't address in the last chapter notes: the reason for the difference in teaching intensity between the sensei has to do with their relative experience as ninja. Kakashi is an elite, the best of the best. He also has two orphans on his team and a girl who didn't try very hard in the academy. He knows he has to be more hands on with his students, and as long as he's being hands on, he's going to try to train them to be the absolute best the absolute fastest that he can. Asuma has the heirs of three different clans as students. He's just generally assuming that they're going to get training, better suited to them individually, from their respective clans. With that in mind, he's focusing the entirety of his team training time on teamwork. Kurenai is a new jounin, but she's also an overachiever. she doesn't quite know how to train a gennin team, but she's trying her hardest anyway. who her students are, doesn't really factor into how she trains them. To that end, she splits her team training time in half. the first half is for personal training, and the second half is for genjutsu training. though she is an overachiever, she hasn't really considered how her students are going to work together in the field if they never worked on teamwork during training.

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In a race between Ino and Naruto, Naruto was the one who won ninety percent of the time. even when he had extra weight slowing him down, as his fighting style absolutely depended on him being faster than his opponent.

In a race between Sasuke-kun and Naruto, Naruto still usually won, but it was much closer. In a race between all three of them, the outcome should be obvious based on currently established knowledge. Naruto came in first, Sasuke-kun came in second, and Ino came in third.

All that said, it didn't make Ino feel any better when Naruto lapped her while carrying a backpack full of rocks.

All three genin slowed to a stop after finishing whatever lap they were on, when Bakashi-sensei called a stop the the days training session.

"I'm stopping this training session early today" He called cheerfully, "You three have been doing well these last few weeks, so I got us a C-rank mission for tomorrow."

"A C-rank?! Seriously!? Yes!" Naruto asked and then exclaimed at Bakashi-sensei's answering nod.

Ino thought it sounded pretty good herself, but she was much more tired than Naruto, so she didn't really have the energy for huge displays of excitement. She would still celebrate, just later, when she got much of her energy back.

"Go home and get ready. I'll see you all tomorrow when we pick up our C-rank mission." Bakashi-sensei said, before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

_  
"Hey Old Man!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly upon entering the mission office and seeing the Third Hokage. He didn't get to see the Hokage as much as he used to see him, what with Naruto having a more busy schedule than he used to. On top of that, The Old Hokage wasn't usually in the mission office. He only took part in handing out missions occasionally, so as not to get bogged down too much by extra paperwork. He really only helped out at the mission office on the days that he managed to work through more paperwork than usual.

"Naruto! You can't call the Hokage that!" Ino whisper shouted at him, clearly quite distressed with Narutos apparent disrespect for one of the most,if not the most, powerful warriors in the entire village. "He didn't mean that Hokage-sama, he just doesn't have a filter between his brain and his mouth."

The Old Sarutobi took his pipe out of his mouth and chuckled, "That's quite alright Ino-chan, I've known Naruto-kun for most of his young life, and for as long as i've known him, that's the only thing he's ever called me. I'm well used to it by now. I dare say it's actually quite refreshing to be called something other than Hokage-sama sometimes."

"Wha? Really?" Ino stopped short. she looked bewildered and she tilted her head slightly to the side as she processed, what to her, was the weirdest thing she had heard in a while. The idea that someone as old and powerful as the hokage might actually find all the respect people threw at him annoying, was an unusual one.

"See, i told you i knew him!" Naruto crowed.

"Settle down you two" Kakashi-sensei said, joining the conversation. "Team Seven reporting for duty."

"Hmm" The Old Hokage murmured, looking down at a sheet of paper. "It says here that you reserved a C-rank for yourself yesterday." He pulled open a drawer on the side of his desk and picked a scroll up off a small pile. "Your mission, should you choose it: a bridge builder, by the name Tazuna, requested protection from bandits as he makes his way back to wave country. You are to escort him there and than keep watch until the bridge is complete. Is that acceptable?"

"Yes sir" Kakashi-sensei replied, looking totally professional for once.

"very good." The Hokage said. "wait here while someone retrieves your client."

The wait wasn't terribly long, it was only roughly ten minutes before a man following a chunin was waved over to Team Seven. He stopped and stared for a second.

"What? i'm going to be protected by children? What are they gonna do?" The man speaking looked to be in his mid fifties. He had glasses and a beard and he was overweight. "The black haired one looks like he's never smiled a day in his life. Than there's the weak looking blond girl and her stupid looking twin. I demand a better protection detail." He continued, immediately earning himself the ire of all three children in one fell swoop.

"Now, now, despite appearances, i trained these three myself. They should be more than enough to handle a few bandits" Kakashi-sensei placated. "Tazuna, i assume? These are my students, Sasuke, Ino, and Naruto. We've been tasked with escorting you back to wave."

"Would we fail the mission if i sealed him inside a sealing scroll to make things easier?" Naruto asked, glaring at Tazuna, who paled slightly.

"Yes, i'm fairly certain we would in fact fail this mission if we sealed our client away. So no doing that Naruto" Kakashi-sensei replied.

"why not?" Naruto huffed.

"well because for one, we would need an incredibly complicated sealing scroll for that to work, which you don't have. For two, even if you did have a sealing scroll that complicated, he would still probably die from getting sealed inside." the Cyclops returned, vaguely amused. Tazuna looked, if anything, more unsettled by the thought than he did before.

"Right. For now, go home and pack. We'll probably be gone for at least a week, so pack enough supplies for two. Kakashi-sensei directed "meet back at the south gate in a hour."

After an hour, everyone gathered back together at the south gate and set off from the village. Tazuna noticeably keeping Kakashi-sensei between himself and Naruto. apparently he hadn't forgotten what Naruto said the hour previous. Though he seemed less wary of either Ino or Sasuke, which Naruto thought was kind of stupid. Just because they hadn't been vocal about their displeasure didn't mean they were safer to be around than himself. "Learn to read body language idiot" Naruto thought at Tazuna. If one were to simply look at the other two genin, one would see that they didn't exactly have a favorable impression of their client either. Though while Ino seemed at least semi amused by the thought of sealing the old guy into a sealing scroll until the mission ended, Sasuke just looked slightly more grumpy than usual.

_

Walking at civilian speed on an open dirt road was just about the most boring thing Naruto could possibly imagine. He had already played Jan Ken Pon With Ino like a hundred times and you could only keep that up for so long before doing it became even more mind numbingly boring than the thing it was meant to distract them from.

"Uuuughhhh" Naruto groaned up at the sky

"What were you doing in the Land of Fire before this Tazuna-san" Ino asked.

Tazuna jumped slightly at being addressed after hours of almost complete silence on the road.

"Oh." He scratched the back of his head nervously, "I was shopping for materials. I'm building a bridge back in wave"

"Wait!" Naruto exclaimed, stepping around a puddle that sat in the middle of an otherwise dry path. "If you were in Fire country to get bridge building materials, why aren't we bringing them back with us now?"

Whatever answer Tazuna was about to give was interrupted. A razor sharp chain rapped around Kakashi-sensei who was walking near the back of the group. He only had moment to react, his one visible eye widened and the chain pulled tight, tearing him to shreds.

Tazuna froze solid from the shock. Ino and Naruto shouted in surprise. Sasuke though, reacted immediately.

"One down" one of the attackers said.

"Three to go" returned his opposite number.

They rushed at the remaining members of the group with the intent to kill, chain whipping in the air between them. They were forced to detach from the chain however, when Sasuke pinned it to a tree using a kunai and a shuriken causing them to stumble from the sudden stop.

That more than anything is what broke Ino and Naruto out of their shocked states, allowing them to jump into action. Ino jumped in front of Tazuna, ready to defend him in case the two enemy ninja broke through either Naruto or Sasuke. Naruto dashed towards one of the enemy pair, while attaching nails to his knuckles, and Sasuke engaged the other one.

Now that Naruto was actually paying attention, he got a good look at the attackers. They looked incredibly similar to each other, but not a lot was visible under their clothes and air masks. They both had clawed gauntlets on one hand each and they both had horns attached to their headbands. One of them had two horns while the other only had one. Naruto was fighting the one who only had one horn.

With several feet still between them, Naruto threw his left hand forward in a premature punch to the confusion and then shock of his aggressor as the nails on his knuckles shot off and speared towards his opponent. His shock prevented him from reacting properly and there were only a few feet between them, so while one horn did still try to dodge to the side, he wasn't fast enough and the four nails embedded in his shoulder. Luckily for him, his armor blocked most of the damage. Unluckily for him, Naruto used the distraction to close the distance and grab his gauntleted arm.

Naruto ran past and under one horn while dragging one horns arm behind him, twisting the arm around in an actually incredibly painful way. Naruto wasn't done though. He continued to sprint, dragging one horn off his feet and punching one horn in his unarmored arm, just below his armored gauntlet, using his nailed fist. Resulting in a lot of pain, damage and blood loss as Naruto stabbed him repeatedly with the four nails attached to his knuckles. This wasn't Naruto's standard way of approaching enemies, he usually preferred to attack an opponents body head on and do as much damage as possible in as short a time as possible, But Naruto didn't know the abilities of his opponent, he didn't know what his opponent had under his cloak, and he really didn't like the look of that clawed gauntlet. He wanted to get that out of the way as soon as possible. That way, if his opponent was indeed stronger than him, he would at least still have crippled him before the fight even really got started.

All good things have to come to an end though, because One Horn finally collected himself enough to dig into the ground with his feet and his other hand.

"RRAAAAUUUUGH!" One Horn screamed in pain and rage, wrenching his heavily damaged arm out of Narutos grip as he pulled his nailed fist back for another strike.

Naruto skidded to a stop and turned to regard his enemy. One Horn stood there, breathing heavily with his clawed arm hanging uselessly at his side; blood already making a small pool on the ground.

One Horn didn't care about his original target anymore. Oh, he would still kill the old man, but not before he MURDERED THE EVER LOVING SHIT OUT OF THIS BRAT!

Naruto used the lull to re-apply nails to his left fist. Looking to the side he saw Sasuke do a back flip off Two Horns claw hand and throw a handful of shuriken at him. He turned back to see One Horn pull a curved kunai out from under his cloak and steady himself. Naruto prepared himself for another clash, which turned out to be unnecessary because the moment One Horn took a single step in his direction, he was smashed face first into the ground by Kakashi-sensei. Astounded, Naruto twisted to look at where he had previously been torn to pieces, only to see a small pile of heavily damaged kindling. Naruto understood what happened immediately, he glanced over in Sasukes direction to see Two Horns in a similar state. Both attackers knocked out cold.

"good job you three." Kakashi-sensei praised.

Once the two shinobi were tied to a tree and One Horn, who Naruto now knew to be named Gōzu of the demon brothers, was bandaged; Kakashi-sensei smacked them awake. The two came to with a start and upon realizing their situation, glared at the people gathered around them.

"So, let's just get this out of the way." Kakashi-sensei started, "You tell us why you attacked us, and we'll not force you to tell us."

"Go to hell. You think you can force us to tell you anything? we're from Kirigakure fuck-nuts, resisting torture is one of the first things they teach in the academy." Meizu, Gōzus older brother, bit out.

Kakashi-sensei stared at them calmly for a moment, then he subtly pushed Ino forward.

"Well, you chose the hard way. Too bad for you, we still have easy options." Kakashi-sensei spoke, "Just making conversation here, have either of you two ever heard of the Yamanaka clan? Have you ever seen a clan member at work interrogating a prisoner? I have, and i'll tell you what. It's not actually that interesting to look at. There's so screaming, no begging, no cursing, no crying, the prisoners don't even twitch. They just stare, glassy eyed, into the air. You see, it's actually quite hard to build up mental defenses that a Yamanaka can't get past, because nobody knows how they even do what they do." The Demon brothers started to shift nervously, not liking where he was going with this. "A Yamanaka just slips in and than slips back out with the information. It's much less of a hassle than interrogating someone the physical way, cleaner too. Luckily for us, we happen to have a Yamanaka right here" He intoned, pushing Ino to the front of the group. The demon brothers looked at her in alarm. Ino herself looked incredibly uneasy. "from what i understand the process is painless, but i also understand that the mind is a fragile place; and Ino here is no expert. Don't get me wrong, I have no doubt that she can get the information, but she may do more damage than is fixable while in there. See what i'm afraid of is that if we do this now, we might not be able to get more information out of you later, on account of you two being brain dead. To be honest though, i don't actually care that much. i would much rather just have a little information fast, than a lot of information slow." Kakashi-sensei smiled pleasantly at the two brothers, and they broke.

_

The decision to continue with the mission was an easy one for Naruto. Though the knowledge that Tazuna lied about the details of it pissed him off a little bit, he understood. Tazuna was just someone without a lot of means in this world, trying to survive the best he could. No matter how good Narutos life was now, he still understood the sentiment. Naruto had a team of his own now, he liked to think he was friends with Ino, He wanted to believe he was friends with Sasuke, He had The Old Man, He had the Ichiraku family, he was on his way to realizing his dream. Tazuna though… it sounded like he only had his family and the hope instilled in him by the possibility that the bridge he was building would free is country from the tyranny of this Gato guy. He was putting everything he had into the completion of the bridge because if he didn't he would fall into despair like so many others in his country. Naruto understood that, so the decision to continue was easy.

_

The decision to continue with the mission was an easy one for Sasuke. He didn't really care about Tazunas situation, sure he felt a little bit of sympathy for the man, but it really wasn't his problem. The real deciding factor for Sasuke was that if he continued the mission he would probably run across opponents who were even stronger than the two chunin he fought previously. Sasuke might have been satisfied with the fight he had with Meizu, but he didn't get to finish it. Kakashi interrupted before he could win. How was he supposed to measure his strength if other people interfered with all his fights. This mission though, it promised to send him up against a variety of strong opponents. He would use it to measure his capacity.

_

When Bakashi-sensei gave them the choice of whether or not to continue with the mission, Ino was hesitant. Sure, she felt bad for Tazuna, but she didn't know how she could help with that. This mission sounded really dangerous. What was she supposed to do! She wasn't strong like Naruto and Sasuke-kun, who didn't hesitate for a second. They both jumped on the opportunity to continue the mission. She wasn't fast like Naruto. She wasn't skilled like Sasuke-kun. She didn't have any useful special combat abilities that set her apart, like Narutos seals, or Sasuke-kuns fire ninjutsu. She didn't believe she was weak. She was definitely stronger than she was weeks ago when she just graduated, but she started so much weaker than her teammates. How was she supposed to catch up, What could she possibly do on this mission. In the end, she didn't decide to continue, the choice was made for her.

The journey back to wave was from that point on, incredibly tense. The three genin strained their senses, looking for any sign of trouble. especially on the boat across the river that separated The Land of Fire from The Land of Waves.

with the tension so thick, the genin felt like would snap at any moment. Naruto hurled a kunai into the bushes to the side of the misty clearing when he heard a rustle in the bushes. The other two started at the sudden assault, as Naruto ran over to see if he hit anything. He visibly let out a breath and pulled a white rabbit and his kunai out of the bushes. The other two genin and Tazuna breathed out in relief as well, but Kakashi-sensei went on high alert. He examined the rabbit for only a moment. then he heard a whirling sound.

"GET DOWN!" Kakashi-sensei shouted, pulling Tazuna to the ground with him, as a huge sword flew overhead and imbedded in a tree.

A shirtless man with no eyebrows, wearing cow print pajama pants, appeared standing of the handle of the sword as everyone was getting back to their feet.

"Momochi Zabuza." Kakashi-sensei projected, standing at his full height.

"I see my reputation proceeds me. I'm flattered that the Hatake Kakashi, Man of one-thousand jutsu, would know about me." Zabuza said in a lilting voice. "This does explain why the Demon Brothers failed though, they wouldn't be a match for the likes of you." His amused expression shifted to a look of seriousness. "I'll get right to the point. Give me the old man and i won't slaughter both you and your genin."

"I think we both know i can't do that Momochi-san." Kakashi-sensei replied, holding one arm to the side to discourage his students from trying to move in front of him, and using the other to lift his head band off his covered eye. "Stay where you are you three. You can't handle an opponent like this. Protect Tazuna while i deal with Momochi-san."

Zabuzas cloth wrapping mask creased as an unseen savage grin stretched over his face. "Deal with me, will you? Oh i can already tell this is going to be fun. I look forward to bathing my sword in your blood Hatake-san." He ripped his sword out of the tree and jumped down to stand on the small lake that was on one side of the clearing. "Ninja art: Hidden mist Jutsu" he said, holding one hand in front of his chest and the other one over his head.

Water seemed to sublimate off the surface of the lake at an incredible pace and a heavy mist filled the air, so thick that Naruto could barely see Sasuke or Ino who were only standing a foot or two away from him.

Zabuzas voice drifted towards them from the mist, not coming from any specific direction. "There are eight points on the body i could strike to end you in an instant: larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, pulmonary artery, kidneys, heart. Now, which one will i choose."

The killing intent was starting to weigh heavily on the genin. though some reacted to it more badly than others. Naruto and Ino simply started to sweat under the increased pressure, but Sasuke looked like he was having some kind of PTSD induced flash back.

"Don't worry." Kakashi-sensei called back to his students, breaking Sasuke out of his memories. "i won't let anything happen to my precious students."

"Heh, you failed" Zabuzas voice suddenly wasn't coming from everywhere at once. It was coming from one specific place. That place, the middle of the genin formation.

Naruto, Ino, and Sasuke turned in shock. Zabuza pulled his sword off his back and everything slowed to a crawl as he started swinging it. Then, everything sped back up again as Kakashi-sensei appeared, stabbing Zabuza in the ribs with a kunai. Zabuza coughed and his mask became wet, But than… something was wrong. the liquid running down the kunai onto the ground wasn't blood, it was water.

"Sensei, behind you!","Behind you!" Naruto and Ino screamed at the same time, as a second Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi-sensei.

They were too late though, Kakashi-sensei turned in alarm only to get sliced in half by Zabuzas giant sword. That too was a ruse though, Kakashi-senseis pieces splashed into water and a second Kakashi appeared behind the new Zabuza with a kunai to the shirtless mans throat.

"It's over." Kakashi-sensei intoned.

Zabuzas eyes widened a fraction before they went back to normal. "I see, you copied my water clone jutsu. Even in this mist. You're good, but you're not good enough" He said, even as he too disolved into water.

Kakashi-senseis eyes grew wide, and he managed to turn around fast enough to block Zabuzas initial sword strike with a kunai, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid Zabuzas follow up kick and lifted the cyclops off the ground and threw him into the lake at the edge of the clearing. Pajama pants followed after him, sword drawn to cut him down. When Kakashi didn't raise to the surface immediately, Zabuza put his sword back on his back and ran through some preparatory hand seals. When Kakashi-sensei did come back to the surface Zabuza was ready. He held his hand out towards Kakashi and The Cyclops was instantly trapped in a sphere of water.

"This fight is over, Give up the old man now." Zabuza demanded.

"Run!" Kakashi-sensei shouted in alarm. "He has to stay close to maintain this prison, he can't chase you. Leave me and go!"

The three genin were shocked, and they hesitated. Tazuna paled and backed up a few steps. Then Naruto visible gathered himself.

"No can do Kakashi-sensei" He said, stepping forward to the dismay of his teacher. "what kind of people would we be if we left our teacher to die?" He paused for breath, "I don't know about anyone else, but I won't leave you behind!"

Sasuke smirked and stepped up beside him, along with Ino who looked less confident than the other two but determined to stay and fight.

Here's the split. In another world, perhaps one that was more fair to it's jinchuriki. One where the demon containers didn't inherit the karma of the demons they contained. One where Zabuza was less cautious and more confident in his abilities to win. In a world like that, he would have simply made some water clones and sent them after the three genin. A strategy that would ultimately have failed and indirectly resulted in the freeing of his jonin opponent. Here in this world though, the universe intervened to make things as bad as possible for a certain kyuubi container. In this world, inherited karma reared its ugly head for the first time in a while.

Zabuza watched them idly for a second, before coming to a decision. He made a subtle hand signal and a barrage of senbon flew out of the trees nearby, taking the trio of genin completely by surprise and leaving them in pain and on the ground with needles sticking out of most of their exposed skin.

Tazuna screamed in fear as a small person dressed as a hunter non dropped from a tree into the clearing and started walking in his direction at a leisurely pace. it was hard to tell what gender the hunter nin was. Tazuna backed up in fear and tripped over a rock he didn't see, falling into a sitting position.

Kakashi could only watch in distress.

Then something happened. Tazunas eyes widened and he looked past the hunter nin. Zabuza grunted in surprise. The fake hunter nin turned around to see the trio of genin struggling to their feet.

"Oh, this is surprising. i was so sure you three were down for good." the hunter nin said in a melodic voice.

"It's gonna take more than a few needles to put us down" Ino grunted. struggling to her feet with the other two.

The hunter nin turned away from Tazuna and focused his/her attention on the three genin, who finally got to their feet. They breathed heavily and pulled senbon out wherever they could reach them.

Setting themselves in their respective fighting stances they readied themselves for combat with a new opponent. Naruto exploded into motion, sprinting forward far faster than the hunter nin had expected and catching him/her by surprise. They were better than the demon brothers though, the hunter nin was much better than the demon brothers so he/she managed to dodge Narutos mad dash. Only to move directly into Sasukes attack, who had been running in Narutos shadow and waiting for an opportunity. The hunter nin blocked his punch and leapt away, while Naruto circled back around to Ino. While Sasuke was distracting the hunter nin, Naruto gave Ino one of his sealing scrolls.

"here, take this" He whispered as he, covertly as he could managed, handed Ino the scroll. "It's the scroll for my Big Rock no Jutsu. I want you to use it as soon as you get an opening." Then he rushed back in and attacked the fake hunter along with Sasuke.

Ino Held the scroll and waited for a good moment to use it.

Sasuke acted as the main attacking force for their partnership while Naruto mostly used hit and run tactics, providing a distraction and let Sasuke actually land some hits. though they didn't do very much damage. The nin was just playing with them really. He/she lazily threw some senbon and Naruto, not really expecting them to hit, while he/she simultaneously dodged a kick from Sasuke. Blocking, parrying, and Dodging blow after blow from both of them. Sasuke threw a low kick and Naruto dashed at him/her from behind, so he/she jumped over the kick and over Naruto, to get some distance and finish this with another barrage of senbon. He/she arched to land near Ino, but He/she wasn't really paying attention to the girl.

That was a mistake.

Just as He/she was about to land, Ino appeared at the landing zone and held up the sealing scroll.

"Big Rock no Jutsu: Prison Ball!" Ino screamed.

Suddenly, where there had been a fake hunter nin, there was now a huge boulder. Zabuzas eye bugged out in shock. Tazuna chuckled slightly hysterically. The trio of genin, breathing heavily, relaxed somewhat a turned their attention back Zabuza. That is until they felt a sudden chill, they turned back to the boulder which now had a visible layer of frost covering it. With a crack, the thing shattered and pieces of frozen stone flew everywhere. The three genin where astounded. The fake hunter nin stood in place of the boulder, breathing heavily. Then he/she burst into motion, he/she was suddenly in front of Ino, kicking her in the stomach and smashing her face first into the ground, Knocking her out in and instant. Than the nin was beside Sasuke, stabbing a senbon into Sasukes neck. Sasuke dropped.

While this was happening Naruto could only watch, feeling helpless… and angry. Angry at Tazuna for lying about the mission difficulty, angry at Zabuza for attacking them, angry at the hunter nin for hurting his friends, and angry at himself for failing to protect them. The edges of his vision turned a little red.

The Hunter turned towards Naruto and started moving in his direction, but unlike before, Naruto could see them moving. He waited for the hunter nin to get within reaching distance, than he grabbed the hunter by shoulders. seeing and feeling the nin jerk badly in shock, he swung the nin around and smashed him/her into the ground before grabbing the front of the hunters shirt and dragging him/her along the ground while sprinting to the lake faster than he had ever moved in his entire life. When he reached the edge, he spun and threw the nin at Zabuza. forcing Zabuza to let go of the water prison and catch his battered partner.

Kakashi-sensei was free, and Naruto calmed down a little. He got his small revenge on the hunter nin for his/her part in this fight and he freed his sensei in the process. Momochi Zabuza stood across from a heavily breathing Hatake Kakashi, his one conscious student, and his client. He came to a decision, and he leapt into the surrounding trees to escape.

Kakashi-sensei watching them go for a second, then he pulled his headband back down over his eye and walked slowly back to his students and his client.

"Come on. We still have a ways to go before we reach Tazunas house." he said, reaching down to pick up Sasuke, and motioning Naruto to do the same with Ino.

*************************************************************************************************************

oh man that was a long chapter. i don't really have notes for it, but i will be including a list of the techniques each of the genin has available to them… just as a reference for myself, so i can look back on this in later chapter.

Naruto:  
The nails double rush: he shoots the nails he normally attaches to his knuckles, for taijutsu fights, off and at a target.  
the illusion nail rain: it's nails double rush with the inclusion of illusion clones.  
the illusion pain train technique: he creates a few illusion clones in front of himself and a few behind and than runs at a target with them all in a straight line, so the enemy can't tell which is him.  
sprint kick: a kick designed to transition smoothly back into running. It's the normal motion you make while taking a step when running, but extra fast and forceful. it's not something he can keep up though, so he can't make every step a sprint kick.  
Big rock no jutsu: he unseals a giant rock and falls and hits a target… or traps the target inside, if it's too close.  
explosive tags: exactly what it sounds like.  
Replacement technique: obvious.  
Illusionary clone: obvious.  
Transformation technique: obvious.

Ino:  
Mind body transfer technique: she launches her mind outside of her body and takes over the body of anything she hits. the technique is slow though, so not ideal for mid combat use. if she doesn't hit anything her mind will eventually find it's way back to her body. any damage her sustains while in another body will effect her mentally, in her original body(she'll get phantom pains of the same injury, but it won't actually physically effect her.)  
illusionary clone technique: obvious  
replacement technique: obvious  
transformation technique: obvious

Sasuke:  
Fire flower jutsu: he shoots a number of small fire balls at a target.  
great fire ball jutsu: he shoots one large fire ball at a target.  
illusionary clone: obvious  
replacement technique: obvious  
transformation technique: obvious.


	16. Sometimes death is fast

This is chapter fifteen… i'm writing this note in real time so if there's a pause between words it's because i actually paused while saying those words out loud… if there's a really long pause, it means that i stopped writing right at that moment and than continued writing later… (literally several days later): Theres something i feel i should address. there's a difference between passive and active stupidity. the difference is that people who are actively stupid, are stupid because they refuse to think. They have the ability to think something through, they just don't. a person who's passively stupid, just doesn't really have the ability to think. or more specifically, they don't have the skill. An example in story would be that Ino is passively stupid, while Sakura is actively stupid. By that i don't mean that Ino has bellow average intelligence, what i mean is that she's not used to thinking, she doesn't have the mental shortcuts that people make when they get good at it, she's not particularly skilled at it yet. She can totally become skilled at it, but she's not now, so her stupid moments are only partially her fault. Sakura has all those mental shortcuts, she's used to thinking and has the skill to think, but she refuses to do so unless someone specifically tells her to. It's not a conscious process, she's not weighing the options of thinking versus not thinking and going with not thinking, it's more subtle than that. By comparison, Shikamaru is just straight up, not stupid. he is lazy though. To clear up what i mean as much as possible: Ino is not stupid, but she's not a skilled thinker. She can get skilled at thinking, but she's not skilled now. Sakura isn't stupid, and she IS a skilled thinker. She just doesn't use her thinking skills. Shikamaru is not stupid, he is a skilled thinker, and he uses his thinking skills.

! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*(()! #$%^&*()! #$%^&*()! #

Arriving at Tazunas house was a subdued affair. Tazuna was still somewhat shaken up with his sudden close brush with death. Naruto and Kakashi were just lost in their own respective thoughts. Though the mood was somewhat elevated when Tazunas daughter, Tsunami, embraced her father upon his return and profusely thanked the two conscious nin for his safe passage.

Setting the still unconscious Sasuke and Ino down of futons in the guest room of Tazunas house left Kakashi without anything or anyone else to distract him from his thoughts of the events of earlier that day. Naruto accessed The Kyuubis chakra to win that fight, Kakashi was certain of it. Though it wasn't obvious, there wasn't a hint of the beasts malevolent chakra in the air that Kakashi could sense. Narutos physical appearance didn't shift either, but Kakashi just couldn't think of another explanation for Narutos sudden jump in strength and speed. It wasn't a problem yet, in any case. Narutos seal wasn't broken, though he would have to wait to see if it was weakened until they were all back in Konoha after this mission.

He left Naruto kneeling beside his teammates and left the house to gather his thoughts. He gave it about a week before Zabuza and the fake hunter nin came back. The hunter nin would need to heal from their fight with his students and Zabuza would want to consolidate his resourced before coming for another attack. That left Kakashi a week to make sure his students could survive their next encounter with the enemy. That wasn't a lot of time, but he was confident in his students ability to improve. They had already gotten so much better than they were in the academy. He just needed to come up with a training schedule.

Ino woke up to the sight of Naruto sitting against the wall of the guest room, apparently waiting for her to wake up. He was staring off into space and wasn't paying close enough attention to her to realize that she had woken up, so Ino took a moment to look around the room. There was another futon next to hers, but it was empty. The rest of the room was fairly bare, There was a door on one side and a window on the other. She looked more closely at Naruto. He looked physically unharmed, which was good. She finally sat up, catching Narutos attention.

"Hey Naruto, Where are we?" She asked. The surroundings were unfamiliar to her.

"We're at Tazunas house." He answered, looking at her with some mild concern. "after we defeated Zabuza and the hunter nin, Kakashi-sensei and I carried you here."

"Oh…" She looked around the room again, and to the empty futon next to hers. "What happened after I was knocked out?"

Naruto startled for a moment, He hadn't thought up a way to explain what happened.

"Well… Sasuke was knocked out right after you, He was on the futon beside yours but i guess he woke up and left at some point…" He trailed off

Ino considered the futon beside hers again, then looked back at Naruto searchingly. "What happened after that?" She prompted.

Naruto was silent for a time as her carefully considered his words. "Things seemed to slow down for me… I couldn't move though. So I… sent a burst of chakra to my pocket. I had a prototype focused explosive tag there." He seemed to gain confident in his explanation. "I don't know what i was thinking, i think i was just panicking. I basically exploded, though most of the force was directed at the hunter nin who was stunned by the blast. After that, i quickly attached a stronger explosive note to his chest and held him hostage to trade him for Kakashi-sensei."

Ino stared at him incredulously. looking him up and down, and seeing his unharmed physical state and his undamaged clothes. She opened her mouth to make her disbelief known, but she was interrupted when The Cyclops followed by Sasuke-kun climbed in through the window.

"It's true, I was as surprised as you when i saw it" Bakashi confirmed.

"How come he's not hurt than?" Sasuke-kun queried.

"That would be the result of his bloodline limit." Bakashi-sensei answered.

"Bloodline limit?!" Ino exclaimed in surprise.

Sasuke looked just as surprised.

"Naruto is a member of the Uzumaki clan. One of the last members in fact, and the only member currently residing in Konoha. The Uzumaki clan was known for incredibly high chakra levels and life force, the latter of which manifested itself as an advanced healing factor. Some members who had particularly strong healing factors could regrow missing limbs. Only time will tell if Narutos healing factor is that strong." Their jonin sensei explained, continuing with "He was actually hurt quite badly by his explosive tag going off, but his healing factor took care of the damage before we got to the house."

Sasuke looked genuinely shocked by the news. Ino could understand. To think that Naruto had a bloodline limit. She thought he was just a random orphan. Though she supposed a healing factor fit in well with his charge first, think later personality.

"What about his clothes than?" Sasuke-kun asked.

Naruto looked at him oddly. "I just changed into a new pair of clothes I kept in a sealing scroll." He responded.

Sasuke blew out a breath and his eye's narrowed slightly as he contemplated the new information.

"Wait, if Naruto traded the hunter nin for sensei, doesn't that mean they could attack again at any time?!" Ino cried, realizing their apparent situation for the first time since waking up.

"No." Bakashi-sensei returned. "I thought about that, but the fake hunter nin doesn't have an advanced healing factor like Naruto does, Even though he was further away from the blast, he still got hit by it. Plus Zabuza knows the same tricks won't work on me a second time. He'll want to take time to allow his partner to heal and think up a new strategy. I give them a week before they try again. That means i have exactly that much time to ensure that you three are ready for our next encounter with them. I've come up with a training schedule for the next week. Get dressed, we're going outside to start training in an hour." Bakashi finished, leaving the room without looking back at them."

The three genin gathered together with their sensei in the woods close to the house.

"Children, today we'll be learning how to climb trees!" Kakashi exclaimed, in a manner that seemed almost mocking to Sasuke.

Naruto and Ino stared at their sensei with deadpan expressions.

"You're joking right? We already know how to climb trees." Ino said dully.

Kakashi's one visible eye curled in mirth and he cupped his chin with one hand, striking a thinking pose with his upper body even as he started walking towards one the trees in front of them. "You already know how to climb trees huh? Well I suppose I'll just have to think of something else to teach you than." He Chuckled in a manner that would have been entirely annoying if the three genin weren't dumbfounded by the sight of their sensei walking straight up the side of the tree, coming to a stop on the underside of a branch.

"How are you doing that?!" Naruto shouted, pointing at his teacher, having recovered from the shock before the other two.

"Oh? You don't know how to do this? I thought you said you did?" their sensei was having entirely too much fun at their expense for Sasukes taste. "Well, looks like you're going to be learning tree climbing this week after all." He took three kunai out of his belt pouch and hurled them into the ground before his three students. "Focus Chakra to your feet and try to keep your grip on the tree. Too much and you'll be blown back, Too little and you'll slip off. Keep track of your progress using the kunai."

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In a race between the three genin, Naruto would come in first even if he was weighed down, Sasuke-kun would come in second, and Ino would come in third. Or at least that was how it went in any race that relied solely on the genin's speed and stamina. Ino was happy to find out that this wasn't one of those races, because it only took her a few minutes of trying to get the hang of the exercise. Sure she wouldn't refer to herself as a master of it yet, but she was the first one to have any measure of success at the exercise and she felt proud of spent the rest of the training day simply working on the exercise.

The next day Bakashi-sensei explained that they couldn't really leave Tazuna unguarded while he worked on the bridge because even though Zabuza probably wasn't going to show up, That didn't mean Gato wouldn't send others in his employ to harass Tazuna. So from then on, Bakashi was going to leave a clone to oversee training and take one student down to the bridge each day, on a rotation, to protect Tazuna from the Whatever random thugs Gato sent to intimidate him. Today was Ino's guard day.

Her shift was mostly quite, which left her time to think and consider her position on the team. Ino wasn't as strong as either Sasuke-kun or Naruto. She knew and accepted that, but she wasn't happy with it. She didn't know what she was supposed to do though, Both her teammates had special skills and abilities that she didn't know how to compete with.

Sasuke-kun was the rookie of the year and was an incredibly skilled all around fighter. He had his clans fire jutsu, that were extremely powerful. When he finally unlocked it, he would have his families dojutsu as well, which was supposed to be very powerful in it's own right.

Naruto was the fastest member of the graduating class and had a strong taijutsu style that was difficult to deal with. He was better at sealing than anybody else she knew, and already had some surprisingly strong attacks that used sealing. He had even managed to beat the fake hunter nin with it. Not to mention he had a bloodline as well, in the form of an advanced healing factor.

All Ino had was Slowly growing physical abilities and a family jutsu that traveled at like two kilometers an hour. Oh Man the bad guys better watch out for her snail speed attack! She needed something that set her apart from her team mates, something they didn't have.

Her thoughts were interrupted by commotion at the start of the bridge. Just like sensei had predicted, a bunch of meaty looking thugs were harassing the dock workers and waving their weapons around threateningly.

Ino looked at her sensei for guidance, but he barely looked up from his book to see what was going on. He looked at her briefly before waving vaguely in the direction of the band of sell swords. She stared at him for a second, then she turned and walked towards the commotion.

"Guess i'm on my own for this one." She thought idly.

"Hey, I thought we told you. Get out of here, the boss doesn't want you making this bridge. So either leave or we'll make you dead!" She heard the apparent leader of the band of thugs yell, somewhat unintelligently, while menacing a bridge worker with a spear.

The aggressors didn't notice her approach until she was only a few feet away, so focused on threatening the bridge workers that they were, but when they did the leader turned to look at her and broke into a cackling laugh.

"Hah, Haha! They're letting little girls be ninja now?!" He laughed upon noticing her forehead protector wrapped around her neck. He leaned against his spear for support and Ino narrowed her eyes in annoyance. "Who'd you steal that headband from girl? Do your parents know you're playing ninja?" He continued "That's a dangerous thing to do you know, you might get hurt." He pointed his spear at her.

Ino had enough of his condescension so, taking a page out of Naruto's book, She brushed the spear point aside with one hand and punched the man in the stomach with her other. She appeared inside his guard so fast, the spearman lost track of her until he was already doubled over and gasping for breath.

The other sell swords in the mob were taken aback at her Impossible, by civilian standards, speed. it took them a moment to gather themselves enough to mount a response but by the time they actually started fighting back, Ino had already yanked the spear out of their leaders hands and smashed him face first into the ground with the pole end.

With her new weapon in hand dealing with the rest of the group wasn't terribly hard. She didn't know how to use a spear particularly well, but she was stronger, faster, and more agile than any of the gathered mercenaries. All she had to do was keep them at a distance and watch out for anyone who tried to sneak behind her.

Stab a thug in the shoulder, dash back to avoid a sword swing, punish the swordsman by stabbing his hands, Duck under a club from a sneakier mercenary who tried to get her from behind, Knock the clubber's breath out by hitting him with the spear pole, stab him in the side to ensure he's not a problem later, Jump away to keep her distance from the rest, rinse, and repeat until all the mercenaries are either dead or too injured to continue. It wasn't that hard, these guys were really just untrained civilians with weapons and looser morals than most. It didn't take long for those left alive to flee in fear.

When the fighting stopped Ino was left surrounded by bridge workers in awe of her power and a few dead bodies. She briefly wondered what she was supposed to do with the dead mercenaries, but decided it wasn't her problem. She had already done her part, she would let someone else deal with the bodies while she walked back to her sensei.

Ino examined the spear she stole from the mercenary leader, it wasn't a very good spear. She didn't know a lot about weaponry besides kunai and shuriken, but it was plainly obvious that this particular weapon was of a low quality. It didn't even have a proper blade, it was just long wooden pole that tapered to a surprisingly sharp point on one end. It did save her a lot of effort when dealing with those thugs though. Ino decided to keep it. If she liked how it felt to wield, she would get a proper one when they got back to the village. Ino stopped back near Bakashi-sensei and started practicing with her new spear, just swinging it around and stabbing the air as the bridge workers went back to whatever they had been doing before the thugs showed up.

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Naruto was the second to get the hang of the tree climbing exercise, which surprised both himself and his team. Though he supposed he should have seen it coming. He already had a lot of practice with making things stick to his body, and making his body stick to things because of his nail techniques. The tree climbing exercise wasn't massively different than the leaf sticking exercise, it was just on a larger scale and focused on a different part of the body. Other than that though, it was pretty similar.

Nobody attacked the bridge on his day to guard it, the mercenaries under Gato's employ were still too frightened by being taken apart by a child. It was just as well though, It gave Naruto time to experiment with his new focused explosive seal design. He managed to get the timing down almost perfectly, the containment cone activated a little bit early but he fixed that problem by putting more power into keeping the cone around longer. It meant that the Explosion would be less powerful, but this was just a prototype so that was ok.

He placed the prototype seal on the palm of his hand and got into a steady position in the middle of the bridge. For this test he would just be firing it into the air instead of aiming it at anything. He needed to make sure it worked before he tried to attack something.

Kakashi-sensei looked up from his book and watched Naruto in interest as Naruto sent a burst of chakra to his palm. The air in front of Naruto exploded and sent him sliding back, his arm hanging down at his side. The bridge workers looked towards the sudden noise in alarm, but went back to their jobs once it became apparent there was no danger.

"FUCK! OW!" Naruto screamed, cradling his limp arm.

"Looks like you dislocated your shoulder." Kakashi commented in amused concern. Walking over he helped Naruto pop his arm back into socket.

"Thanks." Naruto grumbled painfully.

Ok, so maybe he needed to brace himself better when using that particular seal. Or maybe he would need to place the seal on his feet. His legs were stronger than his arms after all. Ignoring all that for the moment though, he needed to fix the timing on the containment cone. If he did than he would be able to put even more of the seal's power into the concussive force, and that would mean the attack would be even better.

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Sasuke would have been frustrated with both his own and his teams progress in the tree climbing exercise had he been conscious to think about it, but he wasn't. At the moment he was asleep on the forest floor, having trained to exhaustion the previous day. He was the rookie of the year, he was supposed to be the best at everything. He could sort of except Ino finishing the exercise first, she had lower chakra levels and consequently better control. Naruto though, He had more chakra than everyone else on the team combined. Sasuke couldn't fathom how Naruto could have so much chakra and yet still have better control than him. What Sasuke didn't know was that Naruto's success with the exercise wasn't a result of him having better control, it was a result of his familiarity with a very similar exercise.

Sasuke came back into awareness in an instant, but he didn't move. He kept his eyes closed and after a brief irregularity, he calmed his breathing so anybody watching would believe he was still asleep. He wasn't sure what woke him up so he took in his surroundings while keeping his eyes closed. He felt four other people around besides himself. One was very close and the other three were getting closer, so he cracked an eye open to see who was closest to him. It was Ino, swinging her shoddily made spear around. He remembered now, She kept him company while he trained the tree climbing exercise the previous day.

Now reasonably sure that he was safe, he opened his eyes completely and sat up; drawing Ino's attention away from her spear practice and to him. He Didn't pay her much attention though. He kept his focus on three figures he could barely see, approaching through the trees. They didn't appear to know he or his teammate were there, so he took some time to examine them. The first one appeared to be a young women who seemed injured, though not crippled. She was escorted by two older, meaner looking men who seemed vaguely familiar to Sasuke. He couldn't think of where he could have possibly see them though.

"Hey!" Ino called out to them, making them jump in surprise.

The three turned to face them, the girl smiling pleasantly and the two men glaring hard.

"Oh hello." The injured girl's voice drifted back. "I didn't see you there."

"What are you doing out here?" Ino asked, "don't you know it's dangerous. With Gato's men running around, you could be hurt out here. Especially since you're already injured."

The bandaged girl giggled. "Thank you for you concern, but that's why i have my older brothers with me." She pointed back at the two older men, who looked like just about the most unfriendly people Sasuke had ever seen. "Don't be rude ni-chans, say hello to the nice people."

"Hello" the two men said gruffly in unison, creating an odd duel voice.

"Don't mind them, they're just grumpy." The girl said, turning back to face Sasuke and Ino. "Oh! is that a spear?" She asked, seeming to notice it for the first time, "Are you any good with it?"

"Well, not yet i don't think. I just got it so i haven't really had time to practice with it yet, but I've been training really hard since i got it. That's got to count for something right?" Ino Started flustered and ended with a small amount of self generated confidence.

"training? What do you train for?" The girl questioned, tilting her head just slightly to the side.

Sasuke furrowed his brow. he didn't like where this line of questioning was going.

"Well, to get stronger." Ino replied, taken aback slightly at the question.

The other girl thought this over for a second, turning it over in her head. "Do you have someone who's precious to you?" She asked finally.

Ino stopped short, totally surprised by her sudden change in question line. She turned her head slightly to glance at Sasuke and turned her head back to look at the bandaged girl again. "I-" She was interrupted when the other girl continued speaking.

"I believe that it's when we protect those precious to us, that we become truly strong." She finished, smiling pleasantly at the two genin.

One of the two older men coughed quietly. The injured girl jumped a little bit in surprise and looked back at him.

"Oh yes, thank you for reminding me. We should go, hopefully out paths cross again in the future." She spoke softly.

With that, the girl and her two older brothers left through the trees and disappeared from sight. Leaving behind a watching Ino and Sasuke, who still hadn't fully recovered from the odd conversation.

One thing was for sure though. The two genin were left with some stuff to think about in the future.

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The bridge was already shrouded in an unnaturally thick fog by the time Team Seven arrived on the seventh day. The fog abruptly ending at the end of the bridge, tipping off even the least wary of people that there was something wrong with it.

"Get into formation around Tazuna, And stay close to me" Kakashi-sensei said as they waded into the mist, prompting his students to get into a triangle position around their client.

"Hatake Kakashi! I'm very much looking forward to our rematch!" Zabuza's voice boomed through the mist. The mist thinned in a small area around them to show Zabuza and his fake hunter nin standing near the railing of the bridge. "But first, let's get everyone else squared off so we're not interrupted."

The Hunter nin surged forward to engage them and Sasuke rushed to meet him, Distracting the enemy nin from her intended target and surprising him somewhat. Sasuke was faster than he was the last time they fought, due in part to the fact that he was using the tree climbing exercise on the flat surface of the bridge to increase traction and push off force as he ran.

Sasuke wasn't a genius for nothing. His team may have gotten the hang of the exercise before he did, but it took a lot of skill to use it to increase your speed. You had to apply the stick to the bottom of your feat for the traction, but release it just as your foot was leaving the ground. Than you had to do that the the other foot, and do it back and forth many hundreds of times as you continued to run. You didn't just have to do it for a long time though, you also had to do it tens of times in a second. The other two genin may have gotten the basics down faster, but Sasuke mastered it faster.

meeting in the middle distance between Zabuza and team seven, they got into a short skirmish before the hunter nin dashed off to the side; prompting Sasuke to chase her.

Before Either Naruto or Ino could move to assist Sasuke The Demon Brothers burst out of the still thick surrounding fog and attacked them, forcing them to take evasive actions in their own particular ways.

Naruto did what came naturally for him. He ran. He ran straight at his attacker, dodged past the brothers initial claw strike and continued to run past him and into the mist. He skidded to a halt and spun on his heel. Taking nails out of his equipment pouch, he attached them to his knuckles and dropped into a runners starting positions; waiting.

Ino did as she did with the sell swords and as she had practiced over the course of the week. She jumped away from the Demon Brother and swiped her spear in front of her to halt his advance and prevent him from taking advantage of her air time.

Zabuza watched with a smirk as all this happened.

"Now that the weaklings are out of the picture, we can start our fight for real Hatake Kakashi. Be sure to provide me with a challenge, I would hate if you went down as quickly and as easily as you did the last time we fought." He chuckled darkly.

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Even with Sasuke's recently acquired speed boost, the hunter nin was still faster than him. If only slightly. The hunter nin stayed just ahead of him, throwing senbon back occasionally as they dashed back and forth across the surface of the bridge. Of course, if there was one thing Sasuke was used to at this point, given who his teammate was, it was running combat. Though usually he was the one running away. He wasn't sure if he enjoyed being on the other side of this familiar style of combat. Admittedly it did feel good not to be run down by someone who was much faster than himself, but he would have liked it better if he could actually catch his opponent the way Naruto always did with him.

Needless to say the style of combat the fake hunter nin had chosen wasn't anything new to Sasuke, which made things easier for him. He even had practice dodging projectiles like the hunter nin's senbon, by virtue of the fact that Naruto often threw nails at him.

Under normal circumstances though, he knew he wouldn't be doing this well in a fight with the hunter nin. In their last fight the hunter nin took them apart without much effort. S/he was only beaten at all because Naruto blew himself up. So now, there were a few things contributing to his relative success against the fake hunter nin. For one, in their last fight he wasn't hurt but the hunter nin was. Second, He had an entire week to train and get stronger while the hunter nin was forced to use that time to heal. Third, The hunter nin still wasn't at one-hundred percent. It annoyed Sasuke a bit that he wasn't as strong as he wanted to be, but that just meant he would have to train even harder after this mission was over.

Sasuke Threw a kunai at the hunter nin, timing it so the fake hunter nin would see it as s/he turned to throw another handful of senbon at him. s/he was forced to turn fully and block with her senbon instead, slowing down because of his inability to keep up the same speed while running backwards. Allowing Sasuke to close the distance to launch the first blow in another short melee skirmish.

The hunter nin switched tactics suddenly during one of their clashes. Sasuke was pushing his kunai against her fist full of senbon as hard as he could. S/he pulled one arm from where s/he has been using it to brace the other. Apparently heedless of the fact that without the extra support, Sasuke was winning their strength match. The hunter nin started doing one handed signs. The sight of which was almost surprising enough to make Sasuke stop pushing.

What forced him to stop though was when the already thinning mist thinned even more in their immediate vicinity and needles of ice started coalescing out of the water in the air.

Ice needles machine gunned down on his position forcing him to dash back. It didn't stop though, more needles formed and more were fired at him every second. Dodge left, right, duck, flip over a particularly low group, circle around, slide under, keep an eye on the hunter nin. What's s/he doing?

While Sasuke was focused on avoiding the constant barrage of ice needles, his opponent was keeping up the pressure with one hand, and running through a second set of one handed signs with his other hand.

To Sasuke's immense displeasure a dragon made of water rose from the waves below the bridge. Maybe it was just his imagination, but when it opened its mouth he thought he heard it roar. Of course that wasn't possible, his logic told him that. To roar it would need vocal cords and this thing didn't have any.

Seeing no other choice, Sasuke ran through his own set of hand seals. A task made difficult by the fact that he still had to dodge the ice needles flying around. He didn't really see any other way to survive this though, so he had no choice.

"GREAT FIRE BALL JUTSU!" He boomed as he let loose a fire ball the size of a caravan to meet the water dragon head on. He didn't expect his jutsu to win the exchange, but he did hope it would weaken the hunter nins dragon enough that even if it did hit him, it wouldn't do a lot of damage.

There was a great crash and a sizzling sound as the water overtaking the fire ball was flash heated to almost boiling temperatures. The remaining water from the dragon dropped to the ground and the steam lifted away, allowing Sasuke to see the fake hunter nin standing in a large puddle of water and starting to new chain of hand signs that used both her hands.

Sasuke didn't know what s/he was trying to do but if s/he could do the two reasonably powerful jutsu, s/he demonstrated before, one handed. he didn't want to experience the jutsu that took him both hands to pull off. Sasuke couldn't allow her to continue, so he took out a kunai from his side pouch and made a mad dash to the fake hunter nins location. intent of stopping him before s/he could finish her jutsu.

This was a mistake. He reached his opponent, who suddenly wasn't there. In her place there was a mirror made of ice, formed from the water of the puddle below them. In fact identical mirrors now surrounded Sasuke's position. He had fallen right into the hunter nins trap.

"I'll give you a chance to give up now, as if we continue i can't be sure you'll live." The hunter nins voice sounded familiar to Sasuke, but he couldn't quite place it.

Sasuke used the lull in the action to steady himself and let himself catch his breath. Then he glared at the nearest mirror, as all of them reflected his opponent and he couldn't be sure of which one was the real one. They both knew he wasn't going to give up.

"Very well. I did give you a chance. You can only blame yourself if you die." S/he seemed to resign herself. Then her image flickered and senbon seemingly sprouted out of Sasuke's body in various locations.

His eyes widened in shock, he barely even saw that. It was time to get out of here.

He turned to the closest mirror and ran through the hand signs for the great fire ball jutsu again. When the dust cleared away he saw that his attack didn't have any effect on the mirror.

"It would take much higher temperatures than that to melt my mirrors" S/he said.

More senbon appeared painfully in different parts of his body.

Time to make a break for it than. Sasuke broke into a sprint for the edge of the dome, only to be hurled back into the center and riddled with more needles. This time though, he thought he caught a flicker of her movement before he got hit.

This continued for a few minutes and Sasuke just grew more and more panicked. He didn't know how to deal with this. He had dealt with opponents who were faster than him before, but they weren't usually this much faster and they didn't generally try to kill him. He saw another flicker, this one much more solid than the last, and he jerked to the side in an failed dodging attempt.

He closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, straining to see his opponent move. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye, and this time it wasn't a flicker, it was a blur. He dodged successfully for the first time in their fight.

The hunter nin paused, as this was the first time since creating the mirrors that her adversary was able to dodge any of his attacks.

Sasuke used the reprieve to start pulling needles out of the places he could reach. He hoped that by doing so he would get feeling back in those areas.

The hunter nin gathered herself and was about to restart his attack, until an explosion sounded outside her dome. It sounded like it came from the center of the bridge.

Sasuke paused in the action of pulling out needles briefly to peer through the thinning mist, trying to locate the source of the explosion. He caught sight of his reflection in one of the mirrors though. His eye's were red and he had a single tomoe spinning around each pupil. Suddenly he felt a lot calmer, He knew he could beat the fake hunter nin now. Continuing to pull needles out, he got ready for the hunter nins next attack. Things would be different now.

The hunter nin was a lot easier to see now, and subsequently a lot easier to dodge. a fact which s/he seemed to notice herself.

His senbon barrage grew more and more frantic as Sasuke continued to dodge and dodge and dodge. The fake hunter nin gathered herself. Then s/he started flying from mirror to mirror, barely pausing inside one before flying to another, moving as fast as s/he could and throwing out as many of his remaining senbon as s/he could in each pass. S/he didn't know what was going on or how her opponent suddenly got so much faster, but s/he was running out of chakra and s/he needed to finish this now.

Suddenly Sasuke's hand lashed out and grabbed her ankle on one pass. S/he didn't have any time to react before s/he was slammed face first into the ground. S/he scrambled away and turned onto his back to face her opponent, but Sasuke was already on him. A quick kunai to the jugular and the fight was over.

Sasuke breathed out a sigh and slumped back. The fake hunter nin gurgled and grabbed at her neck weakly as if trying to stem the bleeding. Curiosity overtaking him momentarily, Sasuke reached over and pulled the hunter nins mask off.

It was the girl from the clearing… huh…

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The mist was thicker around him now than it was around Tazuna. Though it was thinning as time went on, Naruto still couldn't really afford to move without knowing where his attacker was. So he waited.

He didn't have to wait for long before one horn burst out of the surrounding fog and rushed his position.

"Hah! You back for revenge for your arm unicorn man?" Naruto taunted his adversary, who only growled wordlessly in response. Naruto exploded forward at his opponent, who met him in the middle. "Last time, this fight didn't go so well for you. I hope you're prepared!" Naruto laughed as they dodged each others attacks and ran past each other, circling around for another go.

Running combat was something that Naruto was used to. Admittedly, most people he fought either ran away or dodged but stayed in place otherwise. most people didn't try to beat him at his own game. It was a bit refreshing.

They dashed at each other again and again, trading blows and dodging blows as they passed each other.

The mist was thinning even more as the fight went on and at this point Naruto could even see Ino fighting her respective demon brother a short distance away. She was doing pretty well, until a glancing blow from the elder brother broke her spear in half. She really didn't look like she was having fun past that point. So Naruto circled around until he was in a position placing himself on one end of a line. Ino's demon brother was on the other end and his own demon brother was directly between.

Naruto smirked because when he had taken the runners stance at the start of the fight, he wasn't just getting into a favorable position and arming himself with his nails. He was doing something else as well, and this little demonic unicorn was about to find out what.

He was off like a shot, moving towards his demon brother as fast as he possibly could. He was pulling out all the stops for this attack and it showed. His demon brother looked a little alarmed at the sudden increase in speed, but he readied himself as best he could. Which didn't turn out to be enough. When Naruto was just a few feet away, he leapt into the air and kicked out at the one horned one with both feet, while barrel rolling.

The demon brother's eyes widened as he got a look at the bottom of Naruto's shoes, but it was too late to dodge at this point.

"EXPLOSION KICK!" Naruto roared as the air just in front of the bottom of his shoe exploded violently, sending his demon brother careening through the air until he collided with Ino's demon brother and they both fell to the ground in a heap.

The force of the blast brought Naruto to a full stop and he landed on the ground on all fours. Looking up he saw Ino gasping for breath and ran to her side.

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Ino was doing better than she thought she would. Sure she beat people before, but they were all civilians. every time she ever fought another ninja she lost… She never won against Naruto or Sasuke-kun any of the times she was pitted against them during spars, and she couldn't possibly win against Bakashi-sensei when she fought him. The last time she ran into the demon brothers, she didn't even fight, and the time she fought the fake hunter nin she was knocked out before the fight was even over. So this fight against this demon brother was a real test of her progress as a ninja.

She landed after his initial charge and dodged to the side to avoid his follow up claw swipe. She knew that if she was going to last in this fight, she couldn't try to block with her spear as it was the only thing that gave her an advantage in this fight. If she blocked with it, it would definitely break, given it's relatively flimsy construction. As long as she had it though, she could discourage the two horned demon brother from pressing his attack constantly. She knew that if she didn't get the occasional reprieve, she would be quickly be overwhelmed by her more experienced and physically superior opponent. So she would dodge and use her spear to keep him at bay and probe his defenses.

Letting go of the spear with her off hand, she reached into her supply pouch and pulled out a handful of shuriken. She took a stab at his face to ward him off. He pushed her spear over his shoulder and rushed down it's length to get her. She jumped away and spun in the air, bringing her spear close to reduce wind resistance before lashing out with it again when he tried to follow her. forcing him to jump back. She threw her shuriken at him to keep him on the defense and rushed back in upon landing to pierce his stomach, but he dodged to the side, and she had to swipe her spear at him again to keep him at bay. neither of them having gained ground in that exchange.

Two horns charged again.

Stab at his leg, miss. Duck under his claw hand. launch the blunt end of the spear at his chin while inside his guard, he shifts his head to the side. His foot rockets forward to kick her in the head, duck lower and slide under him. Twist on the ground and kick out at his one grounded foot, he jumps away and throws a kunai at her. Push off the ground backwards without standing up, do an extra backwards summersault to extend her dodge distance and avoid a second kunai. Roll to her feet. Swipe at him with her spear again, he's ready this time. He ducks under the swipe and punches her in the stomach. Ino stumbles back, breath knocked out of her, but manages to get her spear between his claw hand and herself. It keeps her alive but breaks her spear. She was in trouble now.

Franticly looking around for anything to help her win, Ino noticed that the mist had finally lifted enough for her to see Naruto fighting the one horned demon brother. He was doing pretty well, that didn't help her though. Duck under another claw hand, receive a knee to the chest. Stumble back and get back kicked several feet across the bridge.

Ino looked up in time to see two horn's claw hand speeding towards her face, so she did the only thing she could think to do. She collapsed like her strings were cut, causing the two horned brother to miss and stumble to a stop from the unexpected dodge. She climbed back to her feet but she didn't think she was going to last much longer. Looks like she was going to die. There was so much she hadn't done yet. She hadn't gotten Sasuke-kun to go on a date with her, She wouldn't get to become a chunin, she wouldn't get to become a strong kunoichi and make her father proud.

Her demon brother turned to face her again, but instead of charging he walked up to her at a slower pace. He could see that she was on her last legs, so he could afford to take this slow. Then he could help his brother against the other brat.

Well, this was it. She wasn't going to go down without a fight though.

Fighting didn't turn out to be necessary.

"EXPLOSION KICK!" she heard Naruto scream. Then to follow words with actions, an explosion rocked the area around them, and a smoking heap plowed into the two horned demon brother sending him to the ground.

She took a few gulping breaths and steadied herself.

"Are you ok Ino" Looking up she could see Naruto's concerned face peering at her. Glancing the way of the demon brother she had been fighting she could see that the smoking heap was apparently the other brother, who wasn't moving.

"Yeah, i'm fine. Thanks." She gasped. Steadying herself with one hand on Naruto shoulder. "Come on, we gotta take care of those two."

Naruto nodded and they made their way over to the demon brother pile. Only one of them was moving and he didn't look like he was doing too well. Having two hundred pounds of metal and flesh driven into your side probably wasn't good for your health. If she had to guess, Ino would have said he at least cracked a rib or two on impact. If she was being hopeful, she would say a rib may have broken completely and was eviscerating his internal organs. Ino didn't think she was that lucky though. So taking the sharp half of her wooden spear, which she still held onto, she approached her opponent and rolled him onto his back.

Kneeling beside him she looked for somewhere to stab him that would finish the fight instantly. Most of his body was armored and she didn't really have the time to undress him, the only vulnerable place was the top half of his face.

She looked from her spear half to the man's eye… she couldn't do this… killing someone in the middle of a fight was one thing, but she didn't think she had the stomach to execute an unconscious man by stabbing a broken dowel rod though his eye. She settled for tying him up with some ninja wire she had in her supply pouch.

She looked over at Naruto who was kneeling beside the one horned demon brother. He waved her away, when she moved to tie the one horned brother up as well.

"His neck is broken" He said by way of an explanation.

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"I don't know how your blond boy beat my tool before, but we're prepared now. You're kids aren't leaving this bridge alive." Zabuza smirked.

"My students are stronger than you think they are." Kakashi replied, keeping alert. It wouldn't due to get caught unaware like last time. "You're allies aren't going to have an easy time fighting them."

"We'll see about that" Zabuza returned.

A fight between two experienced jonin who respected each others abilities generally started out fairly slow. Neither would want to start and lose the advantage of being able to react. Of course having the first move was an advantage in it's own right, that's a given, but it only worked as an advantage as long as you've caught your opponent by surprise.

All that is true in the case that the jonin respect each others abilities. In the case where only one jonin respects the abilities of his adversary, and that jonin knows more about his opponent than his opponent knows about him. In that case, one of the jonin is fool. Fools often use blind confidence in place of reasoned judgement.

That said, it wasn't a surprise to Kakashi when Zabuza made the first move. He ducked as a large sword swung through the air above his head and spun in place to shove a kunai into his attackers kidney. His attacker splashed into water and Kakashi turned back to Zabuza just in time to block Zabuza's overhand sword strike with another kunai.

Kakashi grunted in discomfort because blocking the strike may have prevented him from getting cut in half but it didn't reduce the force of the blow in the slightest. He would be feeling that later.

Zabuza grinned fiercely from under his bandage mask and pushed down harder on his sword. Kakashi looked him straight in the eyes with a passive expression while his one Sharingan eye spun slowly.

Zabuza was confident he would win this. He pushed off from their clash and swung his sword diagonally from left shoulder to right hip. Kakashi dashed just out of range backwards. Zabuza swung again from the right shoulder to the left hip. Kakashi danced just out of range again. Zabuza swung horizontally. Kakashi ducked. Zabuza swung vertically. Kakashi turned to the side and lunged at Zabuza's neck with a kunai, prompting Zabuza to lean to the side just enough to avoid getting his neck sliced open. They were behind each other now, facing opposite directions.

Zabuza felt Kakashi at his back and rotated in place, carving his sword through the air at Kakashi who jumped away. Zabuza still felt someone at his back, but the feeling quickly disappeared so he ignored it. His opponent was in front of him. He sliced his sword at Kakashi again, who leapt back a distance. Kakashi looked him in the eye again and Zabuza couldn't help that his eyes were drawn to the three spinning tomoe of Kakashi's Sharingan.

Kakashi ran through some hand signs and his kunai was suddenly covered in a sheath of electricity. Zabuza wondered what he was doing, Kakashi didn't think such a straight forward attack would work did he? Maybe he did because Kakashi charged at him, kunai held out ahead of him as he bore down on Zabuza's position. Zabuza had an epiphany though, he remembered the feeling from before. There's no way this was the real Kakashi, and that meant.

"Hah!" Zabuza laughed as he turned in place and cut down the Kakashi who was coming from behind.

His celebration was cut short however when the Kakashi he cut through turned to water, and a lightning encased kunai exploded out of his chest.

Blood poured like a waterfall down from his new chest wound and pooled on the pavement of the bridge below him.

"Hah." He coughed. Blood staining the inside of his mask.

Zabuza dropped to his knees as his vision started to fade.

Kakashi looked down at his dead opponent and sighed. He turned his attention back to the rest of the bridge. The mist was starting to clear.

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oh man, writing this chapter was harder than i anticipated. i had a very specific chain of events that i wanted to happen and i had to think of a way for the chain to happen without anybody breaking character. i also sprained my wrist by sleeping on it funny so… it was physically uncomfortable to write as well. Ignoring the physical difficulties involved with this chapter and going back to the event chain. usually i just have one or two plot points that i need to happen, but i just let things happen naturally otherwise. it was harder to strictly control my characters. Oh yeah notes:

1\. Ino's not bothered by killing people because that's just how things are in this world… it's like pandora in borderlands, but less hilarious. People die all the time, more often than they die on earth by a long shot, so everybody's just sort of used to death. It's especially true in ninja villages, where the ninja schooling system specifically prepares them for killing other people as part of their job description.

2\. The change in story chunk separators is due to how reads them. sometimes the site just doesn't register that i had even placed a separation between two chunks. so i'm experimenting to see if more complicated chunk separators are noticed more often than less complicated chunk separators.

3\. In case you're wondering. Haku actually was there in that scene with Ino and Sasuke to gather herbs to aid in his/her healing process. I just didn't mention it in the section because the section was from Sasuke's perspective and Sasuke didn't consider the basket filled with plants worth paying too much attention to. Also if you were disappointed with Haku's interaction with Sasuke and Ino… Too bad. It strikes me that Haku would have had the same conversation with any genin s/he found in that situation. S/he didn't start it because s/he saw that Naruto was a kindred soul in canon, S/he started it because s/he wanted to gauge what kind of person he was. Ino and Sasuke wouldn't have had as strong a reaction to it as Naruto would because Sasuke's just super closed off and not particularly willing to listen to others, and Ino didn't suffer the same harsh childhood of either Sasuke or Naruto. The scene still served a purpose to how i plan for the story to go, though the effect isn't going to be immediately obvious.

4\. A lot of the time i won't include a scene because it doesn't fit into the narrative as i'm currently writing it. or writing it would slow down the pace of the chapter or something. Like the interactions between Inari and Team Seven, i left those out of this chapter, because i wanted this chapter to be primarily focused on the genin's growth as far as their individual fighting styles went. If an event happened that's noteworthy but didn't fit in with the chapter, i'll write a short half chapter that details those events. so next chapter will be a short half chapter about Team Seven's interactions with Inari and the rest of the family.

5\. I switched what gender i referred to Haku as back and forth when i couldn't just say s/he or whatever, because i actually haven't decided what gender he/she is in my story. It's not terribly important as S/he won't be a recurring character. So sorry if that was confusing. Also none of the main characters know what gender s/he is either.

6\. The last time Kakashi and Zabuza fought Kakashi lost without getting to the part of the fight where he would have really started using the sharingan abilities to mess with Zabuza's head. Thus Zabuza didn't even know Kakashi could do that this time, giving Kakashi a major advantage. Basically the way their first fight went down in this story meant that Kakashi learned a lot about the way Zabuza fights, but Zabuza learned almost nothing about the way Kakashi fights. give Kakashi the advantage. Not only that though, Zabuza was also cocky and overconfident due to his quick win previously.

7\. Basically if it wasn't clear, Kakashi used hypnosis on Zabuza for that quick win.


	17. Sometimes death is fast and a half

This is the half chapter, so it's significantly shorter than a normal chapter… except the first couple chapters of this story. that was before i got my stride though. Generally from now on full chapters are going to be from six thousand to fifteen thousand words long. Half chapters are going to be like my earliest chapters, they might be as long as two to three thousand words long, but they probably won't get that long. Also the more complicated chapter chunk separators didn't work as well as i hoped, so i'll probably just start using letters as chunk separators. they seem to be the only thing that reads reliably.

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Laughter met Sasuke's ears when he came back in from tree climbing practice in the evening, he stayed out to practice longer because he hadn't gotten the hang of it yet. He walked into the house to see Naruto talking animatedly to Tsunami, Tazunas daughter, while helping her prepare dinner. Ino was setting the table and listening to the almost one sided conversation and Tsunami seemed genuinely delighted by her interaction with the rambunctious child. The mood was bright all around. Even Kakashi and Tazuna were effected by the cheery mood, despite the fact that they didn't engage with everyone else, they wore smiles on their faces even as they kept mostly to themselves and drank sake or read smut. The only dark spot on the happy scene was the scowling visage of Inari, Tsunamis son, who looked in on the scene from the bottom step.

"Sasuke-kun!" Ino called upon noticing him standing in the doorway.

Tsunami smiled happily in his direction before turning back to Naruto and giggling at his wild arm waving as he exaggerated a part of his story. Tazuna glanced in his direction and grinned before tipping his bottle back for another sip of sake. Kakashi eye smiled in his direction then went back to reading. Given the happy atmosphere, even Sasuke couldn't help but be cheered, though he still managed to subdue his reaction somewhat. His smile was barely an upturn of his lips, more like a smirk than an actual smile.

The air was alive with cheer at the table while everyone ate a meal of fish and rice. It was  
a simple dish, but it was significantly improved by the mood.

"You're all going to die you know!" The mood was shattered when Inari, who had been sitting in sullen silence up till now, finally spoke up. "Nobody can win against Gato. Everyone who's ever tried is dead."

There was a silence for a few moments as they processed his words. Ino looked at Inari in alarm. Tsunami and Tazuna looked at him in sorrow. Narutos face was curiously blank.

"We're not everyone who's tried before." Naruto said in a surprisingly somber tone of voice. "I don't know about you, but i'm not planning on dying here."

"Shut up!" Inari screamed, "What do you know?! Huh?! You're just pushing your nose into our business without understanding what we've been going through!" He took a breath, "You're always smiling so happily, What do you know about suffering?!"

The boys rant was halted when Narutos fist smashed into the table with a bang, the wood cracking slightly under his knuckles.

"Be quiet." Naruto growled softly. "What do you know about suffering? You still have a family who loves you. You still have your mom and your grandpa. When people look at you they see you for who you are. They don't blame you for mistakes you didn't even make!" He started to grow louder as he spoke. "Don't talk to me about suffering until you know for a fact that the universe wants you dead!" His words were punctuated by the screech of the chair legs across the wood floor, as Naruto stood up suddenly. "I'm going outside to train." He turned and left the house.

"Naruto!" Ino called in a worried tone of voice.

"Let him go." Kakashi said, placing a hand on her shoulder to restrain her from following. "He needs some time to clear his head."

The was a sound of a chair falling and clattering to the ground and they all turned to watch as Inari ran out of the room and up the stairs. The feel good atmosphere was ruined, the tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Everyone stared at each other in silence, nobody really sure what to do.

Kakashi excused himself from the table and left for the stairs.

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"Naruto's right you know." Inari was startled from his silent thought, when Kakashi suddenly spoke from behind him. He turned to look at the older man briefly, then turned back around in silence. "Things may seem bad for you now, but you still have your mother and your grandfather. Naruto never even had that."

Inari started at the unexpected information.

"What about his dad?" Inari asked, not quite grasping what Kakashi was telling him.

"Naruto has never had anyone. He lost his entire family the day of his birth." Kakashi answered him.

"How can he act to happy than? How can he smile so much if he's suffered as much as you say?" Inari returned.

"Well, I couldn't tell you his reasoning for the way he acts. In my experience though, it's the saddest people who smile the most and it's the loneliest people who are the kindest. Nobody wants to see a stranger suffer as they have, and it's those who have suffered the most who care the most." The older man explained softly.

Nothing else was said, and Inari was left alone to his thoughts in the silent darkness.

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After that day things were quieter, though they never really got to the level of relaxation that they had existed at previously. At least there were no screaming matches though, so the atmosphere was less tense than it could have been. until the morning of the seventh day.

This was the minimum deadline for how long Kakashi Hypothesized it would take for Zabuza to regroup. As such He decided not to take any chances. He was keeping both his team and his client in sight at all times. So when Sasuke overslept due to overtraining the previous evening, they didn't leave him behind. Instead they hung around a waited for him to wake up in his own time. Nobody was in a real hurry to get down to the bridge and maybe fight a powerful jonin and his accomplice.

That said, when two of Gatos goons showed up and announced their presence by cutting directly through the door to the house, they were dispatched with ease by Naruto; who just happened to be the closest to the door.

Inari was frightened by the thugs presence for all of a second before the eye patched thugs remaining eye magically exploded into gore as a nail was launched straight through it, lodging itself in the mans brain.

The other goon froze at the sight of his partner being killed so easily. He shakily looked up at the various ninja lounging around the room, and he turned around and sprinted back out the house like his life depended on it; which it kind of did.

After that Inari could only stare in awe as Naruto sighed and set about dragging the body out of the house and into the woods. Nobody wanted a rotting body in the house, it would just attract wild animals.

Inari was shocked. He just saw someone take down one of Gatos thugs. He just saw someone take of Gato, though indirectly, and win. Inari didn't think that was possible. Though he made his peace with the older blond boy and his genin team somewhat, he was still utterly convinced that they were going to die. Then this happened. Now Inari wasn't so sure, and for the first time in a long time he allowed himself to hope.

The gathered ninja did eventually leave the house with Inaris grandfather in tow when Sasuke finally woke up though.

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The Mob of villagers, bolstered with fresh hope and confidence by Inaris story about how the Konoha ninjas easily dispatched some of Gatos elite lackeys, arrived at the bridge a little later than they hoped they would. Only getting there once the fight was already over. This was a blessing in disguise for them though. New found confidence they might have, all the confidence in the world wouldn't have kept them from being slaughtered if they found themselves in the middle of a ninja fight.

They did however arrive in time to see Gato himself, in the flesh, step from a boat onto the end of the unfinished bridge with a small army of sell swords surrounding him. They all paused, honestly not sure what to do. They were kind of shocked actually. They never expected to actually see Gato in person.

For his part, Gato was gloating at the gather ninja. Explaining his plan to have the shinobi under his employ murdered after their service to him. Brilliant business man he may have been, he didn't seem to understand the sheer difference in power level between a fully trained ninja and a regular person. He opened his mouth to thank the still living ninja for saving him the effort, when the tail feathers of a crossbow bolt suddenly filled it. The rest of the bolt having sliced its way through the back of his throat and severed his spine at the base of his neck. As he lay paralyzed on the ground, drowning in his own blood, all eyes traveled back to the source of the shot and took in Inari holding a crossbow in slightly trembling hands. The spell of silence broken when the gathered mob of villagers suddenly cheered and started clapping and slapping Inari on the back.

"HEY! YOU KILLED OUR MEAL TICKET!" Screamed one of the sell swords, most mercenaries not being known for their particular brilliance. They were killed or scared off in short order, and Wave country was finally free of Gatos tyrannical rule.

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Ok, so that was the half chapter. I couldn't think of a way to include the name of the bridge into the chapter, because while i feel like some of you might be interested, nothing else important really happens after Inari kills Gato and i didn't want to write a worthless paragraph of meaningless drivel just to have a place to put that detail. They named the bridge the Hope bridge in you're interested.


	18. Routine Reloaded

This would be whatever chapter this is… I forget… sixteen I think, coming back to this several weeks later…

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Being back in Konoha was… An experience… On one hand Ino was relieved to be back in familiar territory. Not that Wave wasn't a good experience, She got to free an entire country from the tyrannical rule of a corrupt business man, and she also got tangible proof of her growth as a kunoichi. Prior to her placement on team seven she didn't believe she could have lasted as long as she did against a chunin level opponent. She also discovered that she actually quite enjoyed fighting with a spear, giving her an edge that she lacked before and allowing her to start on the path of catching up to her teammates in terms of strength. The Loss of her terrible wooden spear was a small price to pay, especially since she had been planning on replacing it as soon as she got back to Konoha anyway.

On the other hand. She actually had genuinely enjoyed her time there. The people may have been poor and wary, but Sasuke-kun opened up more as a person than he ever had before. He only closed off more and more as they got closer and closer to Konoha, until he was as closed off as he was before they left. Inos psychology training told her that the cause was likely his proximity to the Uchiha district, which no doubt harbored a lot of bad memories for him. She also felt that she became closer to Naruto than she was before they left and, upon learning that he had actually launched his demon brother at her demon brother on purpose, she came to the startling realization that Naruto may actually be her best friend at this point in time.

Yeah she had Shikamaru and Chouji as well, her childhood friends by virtue of the fact that their individual families spent a lot of time together; but She didn't hang out with them as much as she used to. What with them all being on separate teams now. Naruto was now her most constant friend, and he was a genuinely good one.

Not to be sappy or anything, whether or not someone being someone else's best and most constant friend is an emotionally meaningful statement had a lot to do with context. For instance, a drifter you met ten minutes ago, who gave you change for a five, could be your best and most constant friend if you lived a terrible life prior to meeting them. Your best and most constant friend could also be a person who had been with you so long and who you liked so much that you literally couldn't imagine life without. Someone who made your life meaningful. See? One is clearly very sad, while the other is the kind of relationship you typically think of when you hear someone call someone else their best and most constant friend. In this particular case, the relationship between Ino and Naruto was somewhere in the middle, She definitely enjoyed his company and liked him generally as a person, but she could also easily imagine her life without him… She just didn't really want him to be gone, if she got to choose, thank you very much.

At the moment she was walking through the village, on her way to a ninja weapon shop, with Naruto walking beside her. Her shitty wooden spear was destroyed in her fight with the demon brother, and she was on her way to get a higher quality replacement. On the way they stopped in a general store for Naruto to get some more nails.

"Why don't you just use senbon?" Ino asked idly, walking backwards to give Naruto her full attention and trusting him to warn her of any oncoming obstacles. A trust that proved well placed as Naruto guided her around a fruit cart.

"Well I originally started training with nails in the academy, you didn't ever see me use them because there wasn't really a reason to bring them in. I was a kid though, living off a orphans stipend. I didn't really have the money to keep replacing senbon when I lost them. Nails were much cheaper. I still use them now because I'm used to throwing them. I don't really want to relearn to throw needles again, especially with an inferior product." Naruto answered.

"Inferior product?" Ino returned stopping when Naruto motioned that she was about to step on something. "Senbon are built to be better than nails by a lot."

"Maybe as throwing weapons. They're not actually any more sturdy than nails, especially once you start getting the heavier and more expensive nails. Senbon are made to be easy to throw and fly though the air more accurately. I already have the hard earned skill necessary to throw nails with speed and accuracy, and I don't think I could attach senbon to my knuckles the same way I can with nails, which would make a lot of my fighting style less effective. It's just not worth it to switch" Naruto replied.

Ino cupped her chin with one hand and thought about it. "Eh, that makes sense I guess" She answered, swinging her arms down and to her side as she turned on her heel and started walking forward again.

They were almost to the weapons shop and she didn't want to miss it.

"Higurashi Weapons Supply" was the name of the shop. Ino had been directed here when she asked Bakashi-sensei about a good place to get a replacement spear. The sign had a picture of a sword slicing a shuriken in half and there was a window with katanas, kunai, and clothing on display.

"Come on Naruto." Ino beckoned upon noticing that Naruto seemed hesitant to enter with her.

"Ah, I was just going to wait outside until you were done." He replied.

"No, come on. It'll be fun!" She exclaimed waving for him to come in before her.

Naruto paused seaming vaguely uncertain for only a moment before his expression firmed and he entered the building.

The inside of the store was cluttered but loosely organized into areas. the left side from the door was dedicated to ninja clothing and armor. The right of the store was dedicated to standard ninja equipment. Just refill packs of shuriken and kunai, with the odd senbon pack or sword. The far end of the store had the cash register. The wall behind it had some more unusual weapons on it and there was a door to the back to one side. Behind the counter there was a young girl who seemed to only be a year or so older. She had brown hair, done up in buns, and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink Chinese style dress… Not that anyone knew that considering that China never existed in their universe… You have to wonder where the design came from.

"Welcome to Higurashi Weapon Supply, my name is Tenten, how may I help you today?" The girl behind the counter called out to them in a practiced cheerful tone of voice.

"Hey!" Ino replied in a much more naturally cheerful tone of voice. "On a recent C-rank mission I stole a spear from a bandit and discovered that I really like spears. The one I got from the bandit broke so I was hoping I could get a higher quality one here."

"Hmm. How much are you willing to spend exactly?" Tenten quizzed.

"Well I got about ten-thousand ryo from that C-rank mission, so I guess about that much." Ino muttered, thinking over her available finances.

"Hey, I'm going to look around" Naruto interrupted, moving off to examine the store more closely when Ino waved her hand in dismissal.

"Well, you can get a decent quality spear for about eight-thousand ryo. It'll be generally durable and easy to maintain, but the really high quality stuff spikes in price after that." The bun haired girl explained.

"Really high quality stuff?" Ino questioned, interested.

"Like, Spears made out of chakra conductive metals, so you can channel jutsu through it. Or with seals embedded in the metal work to make it way more durable, or sharper than it could ever be normally. Now we only have a few weapons like that at any given time, due to the fact that they're not in very high demand and they usually cost around fifty to one hundred-thousand ryo. Than you can specially order a weapon with both features I mentioned before. A weapon that is both made out of chakra conductive metals and has seals embedded in it during creation, and something like that would probably cost around five hundred-thousand to one million ryo. Tenten explained to a gaping Ino.

"Uh… I don't think I would have enough money for that even if everyone on my team pooled all our missions money together for this one thing." Ino muttered weakly. "I think I'll just get the eight-thousand ryo spear"

"Alright, let me just gather the few we have on hand and you can choose your favorite." Tenten said, moving into the back room and coming back out with a collection of ten spears.

They were all of the same design, a long pole with a small spade shaped blade at the end. The only real differences between them were the length of the poles and the size of the blades. Some had wider blades, for more durability. Some had thinner, longer blades, better for piercing a target. Some had poles short enough that they were only slightly taller than Ino, and some had poles as long as Bakashi-sensei was tall.

Ino wanted something in the middle in terms of pole length, and she wanted something that would be more durable and last longer in melee fights. So she chose a spear with a five foot six inches pole length and a wider blade.

"Any chance I could get this in purple?" Ino joked.

"No, but I have purple grip tape if you want it." Tenten offered.

"Really? Yeah, I'll get that as well." Ino affirmed.

As Ino was being rung up Naruto came back and dropped an armful of sealing paper, sealing ink, two pairs of fingerless gloves with armored plate on the back, and a pair of open toed ninja boots.

"You have everything you need?" Tenten asked Naruto while Ino payed and looked at Naruto curiously.

"Yep." Naruto replied.

"What's all this for Naruto?" Ino asked. She could guess what the sealing paper and ink was for, that was pretty obvious, but she was curious about the clothing.

"I have an idea" Naruto answered vaguely.

"Two-thousand ryo" Tenten told him as she rung him up.

Naruto payed and left the store with Ino.

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Genjutsu, Sakura thought, had become her favorite ninja art. It just came to her so easily and with so little practice. Not that she slacked off in her training of it of course, it was too much fun to do for her to simply not do it whenever she had free time. She especially liked it because it was a ninja art that let her keep her delicate figure thin for Sasuke-kun. No doubt he would appreciate the effort she went through to ensure that her form was as pleasing as ever. She did realize the potential weakness of genjutsu though, as much as she liked it.

As much as she hated to admit it, Shikamaru-baka, was a genius. He never acted like it, Always sleeping and lazing around like a… like a lazy person… but he was definitely the smartest person on the team. It pained her to admit it because Sakura had always fancied herself to be a genius. It was because of him and her other semi creepy teammate, Shino, that she knew the weaknesses of genjutsu. If you were smart like Shikamaru, smart and observant enough to instantly notice even a slight shift in the surroundings, than you could get out of genjutsu easily. See genjutsu wasn't hard to escape from, not usually anyway. It's just that it you crafted your genjutsu skillfully enough, people didn't try to escape. Genjutsu was the ninja craft most similar to slight of hand. If you palmed a card from the deck, there's nothing stopping your target from simply grabbing at the palmed hand and forcing you to reveal the card you just took. They just don't do that because, if you did it skillfully enough, they don't even know you palmed a card.

Shino wasn't smart like Shikamaru, he just had hundreds of tiny bugs that acted like an extra sense. This allowed him to figure out that he was trapped in a genjutsu based on contradictory information. Sakura hadn't managed to figure out how to catch his bugs in genjutsu yet…

She supposed she should be grateful to them though. She didn't think she would have realized the weaknesses of her favorite ninja art so soon if anyone else from the graduating class was on her team.

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"GATSUGA!" Kiba roared as he and Akamaru spun like airborne drills and homed in on Chouji during their team sparing session.

Chouji wasn't idle while this was happening though. Having experience dealing with Kibas attack he went through the hand signs for his human meat tank technique and waited on the last sign until Kiba and Akamaru were just about to hit him, before completing the jutsu and instantly expanding to over ten times his original size. The suddenly and aggressively quickly expanding ball of flesh took both his opponents by surprise as they were rebounded from his position. The sudden change in direction and loss of momentum forcing them to drop their shared jutsu, allowing Chouji the time needed to go on the attack himself.

"Human Bullet Tank" Kiba heard before the aforementioned technique rolled over him, driving him face first into the ground.

"Stop please." Hinata spoke from the sidelines. Chouji instantly dropped his jutsu and ran over to help Kiba to his feet. Both of them turned in Hinatas direction as she walked over to them, holding several ceramic jars.

She unscrewed the cap and used her index and middle finger to gently dab the cream inside on the raw scrapes of Kibas face. Kiba winced as the cream did its work and stung slightly in the process of disinfecting his injuries.

"Kiba, do you know how you could have approached Chouji better?" Hinata asked softly, her voice free of stuttering, but barely louder than a breathy whisper. She waited for the cream to dry before she switched ceramic jars out and applied a mild numbing agent.

Kiba shook his head, and Hinata sighed quietly in affectionate exasperation.

"You could have timed your attack with Akamaru so one of you hit Chouji a second after the other. That way even if he timed it perfectly to counter one of you, he wouldn't have enough time to take advantage of having done so because he would be forced to deal with the one who came in directly after" Asuma-sensei spoke up for the first time since the spar began.

Kiba looked down at Akamaru and contemplated that for a second. He would get better, he decided, clenching his fist

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At their usual meeting spot the three genin of team seven waited for Kakashi to arrive. Though they knew it would take awhile as only an hour had passed since they got there. They had at least another two hours before Kakashi showed up. So rather than wasting time by sitting idly around, they each set about practicing their individual skills and fighting styles.

The interesting thing about being a young Yamanaka is that youthful imagination and knowledge of the clan jutsu combined to create some interesting ideas. Ideas which were usually not investigated further as the Yamanaka got older and more experienced, but sometimes created amazing results when they were. After all the mind clone jutsu was relatively new as far as Yamanaka jutsu went. Only just created by Inos grandaddy who wanted to create a clone technique unique to the clan. What better way to create a clone technique unique to the clan than to make a clone technique that nobody else could possibly use without the prerequisite knowledge that came before it. Of course Ino didn't know the mind clone jutsu, and wasn't practicing it, and only kind of vaguely knew of its existence due to stories told to her by her daddy of her grandaddy and of his own experiences as a shinobi.

Though she didn't know the jutsu, she was a psychologist in training and did know the reason why most young Yamanaka never went on to create the techniques their young minds thought up. excluding the techniques that were simply terrible ideas for a variety of reasons and the techniques that Yamanaka youth attempted to create but gave up on after several failed attempts discouraged them, most Yamanaka conceptual techniques weren't created due to a lack of ambition and motivation on the part of the person who thought them up. They would think to themselves "Yeah, that would be cool, but it sounds like a lot of effort to make and I don't really want to do that."

The thing to be aware of about Ino Yamanaka though, was that she was ambitious and motivated if nothing else. She had two heavily combat oriented teammates, and while nobody would blame her if she decided to do what her daddy had done and rely on her teammates to do the heavy lifting in combat while existing as a support oriented ninja herself. She didn't want to do that. She didn't want to be left behind by her team. She wanted to be able to proudly walk beside her friend Naruto and prove to Sasuke-kun that she was worth his romantic attention. Her daddy settled on being an average jonin in terms of fighting ability, he was only counted amongst the most important ninja in the village because of his ability as an interrogator.

So while she twirled her new purple grip tape wrapped spear through the air, fighting a shadow opponent with sweeps and thrusts and blocks, she also considered ways to improve upon her clan jutsu. Of course these were improvements that she wouldn't be able to make for a while, not before she had a lot more experience and knowledge as both a ninja and a Yamanaka clan member, but that didn't mean she couldn't think about the techniques she eventually wanted to create. For one she always found it stupid that when she shot her mind out of her body she was essentially unconscious until either her mind hit her target or her mind came back to her body. For two, and somewhat related to number one, she always though it was dumb that she couldn't move her body after her mind left it. She wasn't dumb enough to think that she should be able to move a mindless body as easily as she could move a… mindful body… but puppet techniques did exist. surely she could do something like that and surely it would be easier, what with it being her body in the first place. With that in mind, her dream jutsu was a jutsu that allowed her mind to leave her body, but than just hover around it, controlling it like a puppet while allowing her a wider view of the battle field. A bit like an astral projection jutsu with an added puppetry aspect. She held no delusions that this wouldn't take a really long time to make, but damn if it wouldn't be worth the effort.

If there was one thing Sasuke knew, he knew that he had to get stronger. That fight against the fake hunter nin just proved it. Yes he came out on top in the end, but only barely. What made that particularly unacceptable was that the hunter nin was actually still healing from previously acquired injuries during their fight. It was a real kick in the pride to know that he was only barely a match for someone his age, while that someone was at half capacity. It especially rankled when he heard later that Naruto was able to beat both his own opponent and Inos. The fact that Ino was keeping the attention of one of the demon brothers didn't factor into it.

At the current moment he was working on something he had recently left stagnant. His wire manipulation skills. Deflecting kunai and shuriken off each other was all very well and good, but using wires offered Sasuke almost unparalleled control over his thrown weapons. Deflecting weapons off each other mid air was still useful, but only really when you couldn't use wires for some reason or another.

Narutos training would hardly look like training to the untrained eye. After all, he wasn't moving around physically like his teammates. He was simply sitting under a tree with a scroll on beginners and intermediate sealing. That is he had two scrolls, a beginners one and an intermediate one. He was pouring over his notes on sealing, making sure he hadn't missed anything that would spell disaster for his idea; while also expanding his knowledge further into the field, both for pleasure and to ensure that none of the more advanced concepts negated his plan.

See, Naruto had an idea while in the Higurashi weapon shop. He thought back to his battle with the demon brother on the bridge and the tactic he used to end the fight and he decided that the technique was too good to simply let stagnate as it was. It was an amazing technique yes, but its application could use some serious work. Sometimes he wouldn't have the time in battle necessary to stick explosive notes to the bottom of his sandals. That's why he got the two pairs of armored gloves at the weapons shop and the open toed boots.

Upon coming to the conclusion that his idea definitely would work, or at least nothing in his notes or scrolls contradicted it, he used tools he picked up at the general store to detach the armored plates from the backs of one of the glove pairs. Then he set about creating an indent in the bottom of the boots which would perfectly fit the armored plates.

What Naruto had decided to do was engrave his focused explosive tag formula into the armored plates and attach the plates to the bottom of his new ninja boots. That way he wouldn't have to specially prepare the technique every time he wanted to do it, he could just do it. Of course engraving a sealing formula onto metal or some other hard surface wasn't something that was normally advisable. It only worked for sealing formulas that were designed to do one unchanging thing. It therefor didn't work with sealing scrolls. The reason for this is because when a sealing formula changed on a scroll, it did so to reflect the nature of the thing that's sealed inside it. That change could only occur though, if the medium by which the seals were created was malleable enough for the shifting of the chakra to move the material. That worked with ink on a paper and ink in a tattoo, but it very rarely worked with anything else. It was why you couldn't make a sealing scroll by carving it into a block of wood, as interesting as it would be to see the results.

It was a very good thing than, that Narutos sealing formula wasn't designed to change. Sure it exploded, and that usually destroyed the medium upon which the formula was created, but only because the medium upon which the formula was created was usually very fragile. In the case of the armored plates, that wouldn't happen… hopefully…

He got the other pair of armored gloves to actually use, though that didn't mean he wasn't improving them. For his other pair of armored, he also took off the armored plate, but he did it a lot more carefully. He would have to reattach them later and he didn't want to damage the actual gloves beyond his ability to repair them. He wasn't doing anything special with the plates anyway, he was just putting reinforcement seals on the downward facing side so that the plates would offer more protection. with the plates reinforced and with nails on his knuckles, it would almost be like he had spiked gauntlets.

By the time Kakashi arrived he students were winding down from their respective training exercises.

"You're late Bakashi-sensei" Ino sighed dully, more that used to this by now.

"Ah! but I have a good excuse." Kakashi exclaimed.

"What? Did a white cat cross your path, so you had to walk all the way back home and come back on the same path to make sure you got twice as much luck?" Naruto replied, exasperated as he was also more than used to Kakashis excuses.

"No, but that is a good excuse. Maybe i should try that sometime" Kakashi pondered, to the collective sigh of his three genin. "No today, i was picking up paperwork to enter you three into the chunin exams that are coming up."

"Oh, Huh." Ino considered.

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so that was chapter sixteen… here's the notes:

for personal reference and also to clear up some confusion, I'm restructuring the mission pay rate a little so it's different from cannon… because the cannon pay rates seem insanely expensive. so for an explanation ryo existed in real life, they were a precursor to the Japanese yen. So i'm using the real life conversion of ryo to dollars to determine this. It's entirely possible that i'm wrong about how the fictional ryo convert into real life dollars, but i'm not sure there's a record of that. the conversion rate of real life ryo to dollars is about ten ryo to a dollar.  
ok so:  
D-rank mission would cost anywhere from 100$ to 5,000$ depending on the exact nature of the mission. i mean it's always going to be chores, because D-ranks are never anything else, but a 100$ mission would be like grocery shopping, while a 5,000$ mission would be like building a house.  
C-rank would cost anywhere between 5,000$ to 50,000$. Depending on the length of the mission. Like a 5,000$ mission might be to take out a small group of like five bandits who were making a nuisance of themselves. A 50,000$ mission would be like a body guard detail for a small time merchant that lasted several months.  
B-Rank would cost from 50,000$ to 500,000$. 50,000$ would be like clearing out an entire organized bandit camp. 500,000$ would be like assassinating a low risk target.  
A-Rank would cost from 500,000$ to 5,000,000$.  
S-Rank would cost from 5,000,000$ to 50,000,000$  
All that may seem like too much but you have to remember that it's usually a team who's taking on the missions and the money would be split between them. Taking on a bunch of solo A-rank missions would be a really good way to get extremely rich very fast, but it would also be incredibly dangerous, because you wouldn't have any backup if things went wrong.

Also the reason team seven only got paid for a C-rank, instead of the A-rank they went on, is because that's as much as Wave could afford to pay. Also they're not bragging about it because the hokage advised that they not spread it around. It's not exactly a secret, it's just that the village would rather the knowledge not be wide spread until they can sort things out with Wave successfully.

in case you're wondering, I'm not bashing Kiba. I don't believe in character bashing. It's a stupid thing to do. If you don't like a character, just change them in your story so you do. He lost both times you got to see him fight, yes, but that's not me deliberately beating on him. That's just happenstance. He lost against Naruto so i could showcase how effective Naruto's fighting style is. He just lost against Chouji so i could demonstrate Hinatas growth as a person and as a kunoichi.

If it bothers anyone that i used the English word for some stuff but the Japanese word for other stuff… Deal with it… I'm using the word that consistently sounds better… Like "Gatsuga" sounds cooler to shout than "Fang Over Fang" so that technique is always going to be called "Gatsuga" in my fanfiction. On the other hand i like the English name for the "Human Bullet Tank" technique, so that technique will always be called by the English name.

If it bothers anyone that i'm not writing down multiple paragraphs worth of internal dialogue for Sasuke, sorry. He's not a terribly interesting character to write about, and also he's not that different from his canon self. Any differences are purely superficial. He's also not one of my main character, he's more like an important side character. Lastly, any internal dialogue i give about a character is usually to give more insight into the character or else the world in which they live. For the insight into his character thing, see my first stated reason for not writing about him that much. As for the insight into the world thing, He's pretty self contained. he doesn't really pay too much attention to the world in which he lives, past what's necessary for his goals and his continued survival.


	19. The weak are weeded out

So… This is the nineteenth chapter. This didn't actually take me as long as it seems to write I just started writing it today, today being August ninth. The last two months were spent just mulling over how I wanted the chapter to go in my head. It's fairly straight forward. I didn't need to jump through literary hoops to get everyone to stay in character while still making what I wanted to happen, happen. So without further ado here's the chapter. Nope never mind, I was wrong, this isn't chapter nineteen. This is chapter eighteen.

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"What do you think the Chunin Exams will be like?" Ino asked as she and Naruto walked down the street.

Naruto didn't really have an answer for that, having never taken part in them before all he could do was speculate, so he shrugged with a blank look on his face.

"Hey let me go!" their attention was drawn to an alley way they were passing and to the sight of a short kid wearing a scarf being held by the front of his shirt by a much larger kid wearing make up. There was an older looking girl behind him with her hair done up in four pony tails.

"What are you doing?" Ino asked in a confrontational manner as they approached the situation.

The make up wearing kid glanced over at them before dismissing them as a threat.

"I was just about to teach this runt some manners." The make up wearing kid replied.

"Look I don't know what this kid did to you, but you should put him down." Naruto said, stepping into the conversation.

"Kankuro this is stupid, let's just go" The quadruple pony tailed girl interjected.

"Hey, this runt ran into me and didn't apologize. I can't let that go, think about what kind of rude person he'll grow up to be if I don't correct his behavior now. It's for his own good really." Make up kid, now named Kankuro, shot back.

"That's a terrible reason to beat up a little kid." Ino criticized.

"Hey! I'm not a little kid! I'm the Hokages grandson, and you have to respect me!" The scarfed kid shouted as he kicked his legs in the air.

"Shut up kid, nobody cares." Naruto asserted, even as Kankuro dropped the kid reflexively in surprise.

"Hah! Nobody disrespects me. Now apologize" The scarfed kid demanded, standing arrogantly until he face planted into the ground due to Naruto smacking him upside the head.

"Naruto! You can't just hit children!" Ino shouted.

"He was being annoying." Naruto returned.

"True" Ino conceded, "You still shouldn't do it though, and weren't we just trying to save him from these people?" Ino continued as she turned her attention back to the other two. Looking them over she caught sight of their head bands, signifying their occupation as ninja, and the symbol on them, signifying what village they were from. "You guys are from Sunagakure, what are you doing here?" She asked.

The two foreign ninja looked from the Hokages supposed grandson to the girl in purple blankly.

"Uh, we're here for the chunin exams" Kankuro told them as his apparent team mate, the girl with four pony tails, held up their entrance papers.

"Oh really? Huh, I guess we'll see you there." Ino replied.

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Naruto and Ino arrived at the Konoha ninja academy, which had been repurposed to serve as the first test area of the chunin exams, at roughly the same time to find that Sasuke was already there and had been waiting for them.

The three of them entered together and quickly ran across congestion on the second floor. Someone had placed a genjutsu over one of the doors so its room number matched the actual test room which was on the third floor. It was baffling, to the three genin of team seven, how anyone could fall for the ruse. They were clearly on the second floor, why would a three hundred marked room not be on the third floor? Not to mention that whoever cast the genjutsu hadn't bothered to change the room numbers for any other room on the whole rest of the floor. Which meant that, without dispelling the illusion, the room numbers read in order were: two-twelve, two-thirteen, three-fourteen, two-fifteen. That didn't make any sense. Not only had these people failed at their job description, they had also failed to have a level of awareness and rational thought necessary to function as a basic human being. The crowd was kept from actually entering the room by the presence of two older looking kids, who were standing guard outside.

Team seven stealthed around and through the edges of the crowd to get to the other side of the hall, breaking away and continuing on their path to the third floor upon doing so. They met up with their sensei briefly before he waved them into the real test room and they were assaulted by the tense atmosphere and quiet murmuring. They were then assaulted again by a pink and red thing. More specifically, Sasuke was assaulted by a pink and red thing, which turned out to be Sakura, latching onto him like a leach.

"Sasuke-kun, you're here!" she cheered, basically draped over him like the worlds heaviest and most inconvenient scarf.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly while Ino tried to pull Sakura off a clearly incredibly uncomfortable Sasuke, and the rest of Sakuras team plus team ten drifted over to the conglomerate of rookie genin.

"Hey Naruto" Shikamaru sighed as he slouched over to the group. Naruto, Shikamaru, and Chouji knew each other better than they knew most other people outside their own team, due to how often Naruto and Ino hung out together and How often Ino hung out with Shikamaru and Chouji. Though she didn't hang out with them as much as she did before, they were still friends and their dads were still friends, so even if she wanted to avoid them it would actually be pretty hard to do it all the time. "Kami, did everyone have to come? Is it too much to ask that this be easy?"

"Hey, you kids should keep it down." The groups attention was commandeered by the approach of an older kid with silver hair and spectacles. "You're attracting a lot of unnecessary attention. Look around"

And indeed, most of the room was staring, glaring, or otherwise looking at the rookie genin of the most recent Konoha graduating class.

"Who are you?" Ino asked, turning her attention back to the older genin.

"Me? Oh sorry, I didn't introduce myself. My name Is Kabuto, and I'm a veteran of the chunin exams."

"Veteran? how many times have you entered?" Shikamaru quizzed.

"This will be my seventh time" Kabuto laughed nervously, shifting from one foot to the other.

"Wow, the exams must be tough." Sakura breathed.

"Or he just sucks." Kiba cut in belligerently.

Kabuto chuckled nervously and scratched his arm. "I have something to show for it though" He claimed, pulling out a deck of cards. "I'm something of an information gathering expert, and everything I have is written on these cards." He continued, "As a show of good faith, go ahead, ask me about anything or anyone, I promise you I'll have at least some information on it."

"So, could we ask about other genin in the exams?" Ino asked.

"Sure, I have something on everyone." He replied.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Naruto Uzumaki." Kiba interrogated.

"Aw. You know their names? That takes all the fun out of it." The spectacled older genin lamented. "Let's see here." He pulled two cards out of the deck and held them up for the gathered crowd to see. "Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto: Both are on team seven along side Yamanaka Ino. Uchiha Sasuke specializes in taijutsu and ninjutsu, and has a high level of skill in both. His known ninjutsu include: The Great Fire Ball Jutsu, The Fire Flower Jutsu, and the academy three. He's done one-hundred and seventy D-rank rank missions and one C-rank. Though rumor has it that the C-rank didn't go as planned, so it may have been as difficult as a B-rank. Uzumaki Naruto has the same mission history as his team mate. He specializes in taijutsu and fuinjutsu. He's created his own style of taijutsu that relies of speed and stamina, and he's therefore one of the fastest genin in the exams. He's known to use nails in place of normal throwing weapons and he can stick them to his knuckles to increase the lethality of his taijutsu style. He's passable at the academy three. That's all I have on them." The silver haired genin finished.

Kiba grunted at the information, having known some of it and the rest not being useful. The only useful things he learned were what Jutsu Sasuke knew and that Naruto had a method of increasing the effectiveness of his already effective taijutsu style.

"Alright insects! Shut up and form a line! This is the beginning of the first test of the chunin exams!" A large scar faced man, who'd just appeared in a billowing cloud of smoke along side a cadre of clip board holding chunin, bellowed.

Those in the room hastened to do as he instructed, forming a single file line that snaked around the room because there were too many people for the line to be perfectly straight. They were instructed to draw numbered ballots out of a wooden box with a slot in the top, just large enough to fit a hand, then go sit down at the corresponding seat.

"The first test is a written one." The large man intoned, his voice carrying across the entire room as he swept his gaze around. "There are only four rules. Everybody starts the test with ten points. You get one point off for every wrong answer. If you're caught cheating three times you and your team are disqualified. Teams will pass or fail based on the score that everybody on the team gets combined. Begin!"

Some fraction of the room began writing almost immediately. Others following soon after. Something struck Naruto as odd though. The way the rules were set up meant that he could pass the test even if he didn't do anything. The examiner said they would get a point off for every wrong answer, but not answering at all wasn't an incorrect answer. Surely that wasn't intentional. He couldn't think of another way to pass though. He didn't know how to answer any of the questions. He may not have been stupid, but these test questions were way beyond what he would expect anyone bellow jonin level to be able to answer. He didn't want to worry his team though so he picked up his pencil and pretended to write, just doodling on his paper in actuality.

"Naruto!" The girl next to him, Hinata he thought her name was, Whisper hissed just loud enough for him to hear. "What are you doing?"

His eye's flickered over to her but he didn't turn his head, not wanting to give the examiners reason to believe he was cheating. "Uh, what?" He whispered back questioningly.

"It's me, Ino. Why are you doodling on the paper?" Yamanaka Hinata, or Hyuga Ino asked.

Naruto explained his thought, which Ino contemplated for a second.

"Huh. You know what? I didn't notice that, but we really shouldn't rely on it." Ino leaned back in Hinata's body to look at the ceiling. "Copy as much as you can." She said, Hinata's paper now being in full view.

Naruto flickered his eyes over Hinata's exam paper and wrote the answers down himself, before giving Ino the ok to go back to her own body. Hinata slumped down in her chair for a moment before seeming to jerk awake and look around in alarm.

The rest of the test passed in relative peace, baring teams occasionally making a fuss when they were kicked out and the examiners raising their voices to kick out the afore mentioned teams.

Eventually things quieted down, as everyone who was left already had all the answers written down. Those teams still in the room were left just waiting for something to happen.

"I'm sure you all noticed that your test papers only had nine questions written on them" The large scarred mans voice cut through the silent air, "That was deliberate. It's because those of you who are left will be given the choice of whether or not you want to take the tenth question." The room was silent. "If you don't take the question, you and your team will be disqualified from the exams and sent home. However, if you choose to take the question and you get it wrong, you will be barred from ever taking the chunin exams again."

There was an instant uproar.

"You can't do that!"

"What?!"

"There are plenty of people here who've taken the exams before!"

"Not with me!" The scarred man bellowed over the din. "You all, just had the misfortune of having me as your examiner this year." He said to the suddenly quiet room. "Make your choices." He finished staring stonily out over the remaining genin.

It didn't take long for someone to break and opt out of the question, getting themselves and their team kicked out. Like a damn breaking, a flood of other genin started raising there hands, until the tide slowed to a crawl and the scarred man looked out over the reduced crowd.

"Are you willing to risk eve-" "Shut the fuck up!" Naruto interrupted the scarred man, He was suddenly the centre of attention as he stood up from his seat. "We wouldn't be here if we weren't willing to put everything on the line to achieve our dreams! Don't you ever question the resolve of me or my team ever again. We're ready for anything you can throw at us."

The scarred man stared at him for a moment, before sweeping his gaze around the rest of the room, searching for uncertainty in the eyes of those left. Naruto's outburst seemed to have given them confidence though.

"My name is Morino Ibiki and everyone here has passed the first exam."

There was a stunned silence. Broken suddenly as one of the windows exploded inwards and a ball of cloth unfurled, the four corners stuck to the ceiling and floor by kunai. The cloth read "Presenting the amazing Mitarashi Anko!"

"Hey brats! I'm Mitarashi Anko and I'm the examiner for the second test!"

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At first the name "Forest of Death" sounded stupid to Ino, but now that she was actually standing in front of it, she could see how the wooded area would have gained that name. It was truly ominous looking. The trees, even at the edge, were as thick as buildings and grew so tall, with canopies reaching so far that there was shade from the sun stretching several hundred feet from the base. It must be like the dead of night even during the day in there, and Ino shuddered to think how dark it would get during the actual night.

"Alright brats! Welcome to the second test of the chunin exams! Before we begin, I'm going to need everyone here to sign waivers, so that when you die you're home village can't legally do anything about it!" The women from before, Mitarashi Anko, shouted over the crowd of quietly murmuring genin. She waved behind her to a table with two chunin sitting at attention. Sheaves of paper sitting in front of them, waiting for the signatures of the gathered crowd. She waited for the genin to sign the waivers before she continued. "Alright! Now, I'm going to explain the rules of this test. One: once you enter the forest, you can't leave unless you want to fail. Two: each team is going to be handed one of two scrolls, either a heaven scroll or an earth scroll." Behind her another chunin held up copies of the two scrolls. One was white and the other was brown. "Three: You have two objectives, the first is to reach the tower in the center of the forest, the second is to get a complete set of scrolls, one heaven scroll and one earth scroll. It doesn't matter how you do it. Four: You have a time limit of five days. If you don't get to the center tower with both scrolls within the time limit, you fail. Five: Don't open the scrolls until you get to the tower. Now let me explain what that means to those of you who are slower on the uptake!" Mitarashi Anko grinned viciously over the genin, "It means that your numbers will be cut down by at least half before the start of third test. Now line up and get your teams a scroll!"

After getting her team an earth scroll and sticking it in her side pouch, Ino lined up at one of the gates with Naruto and Sasuke-kun. A horn sounded, the gate opened, and they all dashed into the forrest in triangle formation. With Ino in the middle and front and her teammates in the back and on either side to protect her and the scroll she was holding. Already there were sounds of combat in the distance.

Running through the Forrest of Death was not boring. Besides the fact that it was exactly as dark as Ino feared it would be and twice as creepy, they took to leaping from tree to tree after an encounter with a bear the size of small house. Further on, after an encounter with a mosquito the size of a dog, they learned that there wasn't really a safe route in the Forrest of Death and the only way to truly ensure your safety was to just be on alert at all times. They didn't really come up with a plan before they came in and they still hadn't talked about making one. That bothered Ino somewhat, glancing behind her she could tell that the thought had probably occurred to Naruto as well, based on his faintly troubled expression. She couldn't tell what Sasuke-kun was thinking, his face was as blank and hard to read as it usually was. Turning thought into action though, she called a stop on the next tree branch and turned to her teammates.

"So, what's the plan guy?" She whispered, wary of any potential threats. "We didn't really talk about what we're going to do before we came in here."

"We could set a trap." Naruto offered. "I can quickly fix some of my explosive notes so they explode when people go near them."

"Ok, good idea Naruto, but where would we set the trap?" She asked in return.

"The tower at the center." Sasuke-kun cut in, "We'll go straight there and set up a trap for people who've already managed to get both scrolls. If we run into anyone on the way there, than we fight them and hope they have the scroll we need."

Plan decided they set off again.

It was another hour of travel without running into anything that Naruto's luck kicked in again. There's something you need to understand about the situation Naruto and his team found themselves in. The chances of running into a S-rank missing nin, who enjoys his privacy and doesn't bother with the rabble of the outside world unless he has something to gain from doing so, as a wet behind the ears genin is so infinitesimally small that it's just not something that's going to happen. That doesn't happen. Understanding how than, it did happen, requires a thorough understanding of the reasons behind the encounter and the events that lead up to it. In this particular case, the missing nin was after one particular person. That person being Sasuke. That means that this encounter was going to happen to Sasuke regardless of whether Naruto was there to experience it as well. Now Naruto WAS there to experience it, If he wasn't it wouldn't be bad luck on his part. The only reason Naruto was there to experience the encounter is because Naruto happened to be on the same team as Sasuke. An event that required quite a bit of set up. Normally when genin teams are assigned, the rookie of the year is paired with the dead last and someone who was perfectly in the middle in order to create a balanced team. Naruto is neither the dead last or perfectly middle of the road. Naruto was only placed on the same team as Sasuke due to the workings of politics. Kakashi requested that Naruto be placed under him so that he could help train the son of his teacher. His request was granted because nobody else was particularly interested in taking Naruto on as a student and the Konoha higher ups gained nothing from needlessly antagonizing one of their best ninja. Sasuke was placed with Kakashi because Kakashi was the last loyal Konoha shinobi with a working Sharingan. Kakashi was the last loyal Konoha shinobi with a working Sharingan because Sasuke's older brother, Itachi, went insane and killed the rest of the clan when Sasuke was eight. Some say it was stress, others think Itachi was just always a psychopath. This missing nin was only interested in Sasuke because Sasuke was the only remaining Uchiha he could possibly influence. It all circles back around on itself. You take for granted how unlikely something like that is, because it's happened in an infinite amount of realities. What you don't take into account is that with infinity possible realities, the amount of realities that that sequence of events takes place in is only one infinity. The amount of realities where any other sequence of events happens is more than sixty billion infinities. It's infinite infinities. With all that laid out for you, perhaps you can now better appreciate exactly how unlucky Naruto is and was when a wind tunnel shot out of the nothingness and swept through their formation. Blasting an unprepared Ino off her feet and into Naruto, who leapt to catch her, sending them both flying far into the distance and leaving Sasuke so face the missing nin alone.

As long as you're not on a collision course with anything deadly, sailing through the air with a friend isn't actually that bad. Too bad for these two, they were actually on a collision course with something deadly. Some distance away, but rapidly approaching they could see the shape of a giant snake, as thick around as the trees at the edge of the Forrest of Death, though not quite as tall. The snake, unfortunately, seemed to be waiting for them, having somehow known they were coming, It waited with its mouth open to catch its seemingly helpless pray.

Thinking fast, Naruto pulled out the scroll he used for Big Rock no Jutsu and a few timed explosive notes.

"Get ready to jump!" Naruto shouted over the roar of the wind passing them by. "I'm going to unseal a huge rock! Be ready to jump off it and away from the snake on my signal!" He crumpled up the explosive notes and primed them, throwing them ahead of them, he unsealed the boulder. "Now!" He screamed, pushing off the newly formed land mass with Ino, slowing them down enough to grab a passing tree without ripping their arms off and sending the rock into the waiting mouth of the snake. Wedging it there. The snake was painfully confused for just a moment. Then it's head exploded, sending blood, flesh, and shards of stone shrapnel in every direction.

"Holy shit." Ino breathed.

"I think I'm going to call that one "Big Fucking Rock no Jutsu"" Naruto replied.

They sat there for a moment, catching their breath.

"Oh Shit! We need to get back to Sasuke-kun!" Ino suddenly realized, her eyes widening in unison with Narutos as they both turned around and dashed back the way they came.

Sasuke, meanwhile, wasn't doing so hot. The ninja who had separated him from his teammates was just playing with him. Sasuke knew this because he just set the guy on fire and he walked out of the conflagration totally unharmed. The guy didn't even seem winded. The fight up to that point seemed a lot more even, but Sasuke supposed the other shinobi had just been holding back.

"Ku ku ku, I'm disappointed Sasuke-kun. To think that this is the best the last loyal Uchiha of Konoha has to offer." The other shinobi, from grass based on the forehead protector, hissed softly.

During a momentary reprieve in combat, Naruto and Ino landed on the branch Sasuke was occupying. The grass ninja looked vaguely surprised.

"Oh, survived my snake did you? That's a surprise. Well, I suppose I'll just have to dispose of you personally. I can't have you interfering with my fight with young Sasuke-kun after all." Ino shuddered at the way the grass ninja said "Sasuke-kun" It just sounded to sick coming from him. Like verbal cancer.

Ino blinked. The grass ninja was in front of Naruto burying a purple flaming palm into his stomach, launching Naruto off the tree branch and into the trunk of another tree. He hit it with a crack and started to fall to the forrest floor below, His descent halted by Ino catching him before he could fall too far.

Looking back up from her new perch on the side of another tree, Ino had a front row seat to the most one sided fight she had ever seen, including all the fights her team took part in against Bakashi-sensei.

"This guy. What's he even doing here?!" Ino thought in alarm. The grass shinobi was definitely strong enough to be a jonin already. Why was he taking part in the chunin exams?

The fight Ino witnessed couldn't even really be described as a fight. A more apt comparison would be an adult holding a small child at arms length by the forehead as the child swung futilely through the air between them. It would have been hilarious if it wasn't so terrifying. The pace picked up a notch or two as something changed about Sasuke-kun, but Ino couldn't see what it was, and it wasn't enough. only a minute after the pace was picked up, the grass ninja smiled, apparently satisfied with something. There was a barely noticeable flair of chakra and Sasuke-kun froze.

"You're better than I predicted you would be Sasuke-kun. Very good. Take this." To Inos horror and confusion the grass shinobi bit down on the frozen Sasuke-kuns throat. "Think of it as a gift. Or compensation for providing me with such entertainment. Till next we meet." He said.

Then he was gone.

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With two unconscious teammates Ino did the best she could to create a fortified shelter. Something easy to defend, and also easy to leave in case escape was necessary. She could have searched for a cave of some kind or something, but Ino did something else that she thought was fairly clever. She rooted through Narutos sealing supplies and found an empty sealing scroll which she held up against the side of the widest tree she would find and activated to seal a large chunk of the tree inside, creating an artificial hollow in the tree a hundred feet off the ground. She then pealed some bark off the tree branch just outside and place explosive tags in strategic locations before applying the bark back, so as to create hidden mines. Last, she stuck another empty sealing scroll to the back wall of the hollow so that if escape became necessary she could create a hole in an instant and leave with her teammates hefted over both shoulders. She still wasn't totally comfortable with the arrangement, after all their fronts were still totally exposed to ranged attacks. Ideally she would have wanted a way to cover the entrance back up with a slab of wood, so their hiding place wasn't obvious. She briefly thought that It might be possible if she partially unsealed the wood chunk, but she didn't know enough about sealing to do that, and Naruto was still unconscious. As things were, this was the best she could do on short notice. She also didn't want to move her teammates too much because Sasuke-kun was starting to get a fever and Ino had no idea what the scary Grass nin did to Naruto. With nothing to do but wait for her teammates to wake up and watch for potential threats, Ino had to occupy herself somehow.

"This would be so much easier if Naruto was awake. He's always fun to talk to." Ino thought to herself as she watched the surroundings for threats.

She didn't have to wait long. Or maybe she did. It's all subjective and relative. Someone less patient might consider the amount of time it took for someone to attack her to be too long. To Ino though, only being forced to wait for about five hours was not a long time at all. Really she would have preferred that nobody attacked her for at least a day, her at worst estimate for how long it would take for her teammates to wake up. Fortunately she had traps prepared, unfortunately those attacking had watched her prepare them, having shown up shortly after the Grass shinobi left. Things went pear shaped from there.

If there was one thing she never wanted to do again. Ino never wanted to fight three other ninja at the same time. She twisted out of the way of an air stream. Fighting sell swords and mercenaries was fine. They barely knew the blade of a sword from the handle, but other ninja were just too unpredictable. A bell rung, her vision swam.

"Genjutsu" Ino realized as she was caught unprepared by another wind stream, blowing her back a distance until she dug her spear into the wood of the tree branch to slow herself down.

With her arms wrapped around her spear she brought her hands together. One of her opponents, a Sound village genin wrapped up like a mummy, brought his gauntlet covered fist down on her head. She burst into smoke and a log took her place. A log that was promptly smashed into the ground and shaken to pieced by some unseen force.

From her new hiding place Ino went over her options. She had a spear, and few explosive tags left over from Narutos stash, her mind transfer jutsu, and the academy three. She couldn't spend too much time thinking about her plan or the three sound genin may loose interest in their fight and decide to just kill Sasuke-kun, their stated goal. She couldn't afford to use the mind transfer jutsu because if she missed, both she and her teammates would be sitting ducks until her mind returned to her body. Wait, she just had an idea.

The Sound genin were starting to get bored with looking for Ino and were about to go back to their original target, when a log came flying out from behind another tree to the side. It was on a direct path towards the female Sound genin, with the long dark hair and the bells. It was going fast enough that if it hit, it would hurt. It was however a painfully obvious attack and it was easily side stepped. The last Sound genin, who had tubes in his arms, sent a stream of wind from both arms in the direction the log came from. There was silence as debris settled.

"Was that her best shot? seriously?" the female Sound genin asked incredulously.

Disbelieving or not, she was completely unprepared when the shaft of a spear slammed into the back of her knees, dropping her to them, and even less prepared when Ino round house kicked her in the chest, dropping the Sound kunoichi to her back. When the other two sound genin wheeled around they saw that Ino had replaced the log from before and she was now holding their teammate to the ground with a foot to the chest and the tip of her spear to the sound kunoichis throat.

"Surrender and drop your scroll or I'll kill your teammate" Ino threatened. She would have just killed the Sound kunoichi outright, but Ino liked her chances against two enemy ninja only slightly more than she liked her chances against three, and her log trick wouldn't work twice. It made much more sense to force a surrender by holding a hostage.

Or at least she thought it did. She wasn't so sure anymore. The other two didn't seem freaked out. In fact they were laughing

"HaHA! Oh man, I needed that laugh. Sorry, no deal" The one with tube arms laughed.

"What?! But I have your teammate hostage. I'm going to kill her if you don't." Ino threatened again, totally confused by the way things were going.

"She knew something like this could happen when we were placed on a team together. That she was unprepared for it is her own fault. So prepare to die girl. We won't fail our master, the consequences for doing so would be dire." The bandaged one said eloquently.

So caught off guard by their total disregard for the life of their teammate. Ino didn't react in time before she was blown off the Sound kunoichi, off the branch they were fighting on, and towards the forrest floor below. She caught herself before she hit the ground, but she wouldn't be able to get back in time to save Sasuke-kun. She felt her heart beating in her throat as she climbed back up the tree as fast as she could. Maybe if she rushed, she could still save them. Maybe she would be fast enough. She wasn't, but it didn't matter, because the scene she came back to was that of Sasuke-kun. Awake and covered in flame tattoos, purple chakra swirling around him as he held the hand of the bandage wrapped Sound genin.

"Who are you?" He asked.

There was an audible crunch as he closed his hand around the Sound genins. The Bandaged genin didn't scream or cry out, but what skin could be seen visibly paled.

"Ino." Sasuke-kun intoned, glancing in her direction. "Who are they?"

"They uh, they attacked us while you and Naruto were unconscious" Ino hesitantly informed him, a little unnerved by Sasuke-kuns appearance.

"I see." Sasuke-kuns face took on a maniacal grin. "Then I'll just kill them." The bandaged genin was suddenly flying through the air away from Sasuke-kun who stood with his fist extended, his demented smile still firmly in place.

"Fuck you!" The tube armed Sound genin screamed, sending out a bigger wind stream than any he had ever sent out against Ino.

Sasuke-kun wasn't where the Sound genin was aiming anymore though. He reappeared behind his attacker and planted his foot in the back of the Sound genins head, sending him reeling. Sasuke-kun didn't let him get too far away though, he grabbed the genins arm and swung him back around into a knee strike to the chest. At this point Sasuke-kun was just playing with them. He could have easily killed them several times over, but he was dragging it out. He seemed to be enjoying their suffering.

There was the soft jingling of a bell and Sasuke could feel his vision trying to warp. He dealt with it by flaring his Sharingan. Then he was in front of the Sound kunoichi. Holding her up by the throat and slowly choking the life out of her as she clawed futilely at his arms and hands.

"Wait!" The bandaged genin shouted, even as he coughed and heaved, getting the wind back into his lungs. "Take our scroll." He placed a heaven scroll on the ground. "We'll leave peacefully, just don't kill us."

Sasuke-kun regarded the bandaged genin for a few moments. Then his hand unclenched and the Sound kunoichi collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. The bandaged genin cautiously made his way over to help her to her feet. Then all three Sound genin leapt away into the trees and were out of sight in seconds. The flame tattoos receded into a mark on Sasuke-kuns neck and he swayed on his feet, but remained upright.

It was another hour until Naruto woke up, at which point the three genin of team seven made there way to the middle tower without further incident.

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The next few days inside the center tower went by peacefully, nothing really happened until the fifth day when the jonin inside the tower gathered everyone who completed the test and explained the purpose behind the chunin exams.

"Congratulations all of you. However, we have too many contestants for the third test, which will be a tournament style competition. Potential customers from all around the world will be coming to see you fight, but they'll get bored if they're made to sit through too many. So, we're going to hold a preliminary fight now to cut down on the number of contestants. Before we begin, would anybody like to drop out?" The sickly jonin told them between bouts of hacking coughs.

"Ah, yeah. I'm totally exhausted from the last test. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight." Kabuto called out, before turing around and leaving the room.

"Alright everyone else move up to the two balconies. We'll be using a computer to decide who fights who, so it's completely random. Keep your eye on the monitor between fights in case it's your turn." The coughing jonin explained.

Everyone moved up the balconies and waited for the computer to decide the first match up.

Yamanaka Ino vs Haruno Sakura

"Will Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura please come down to the floor" The sickly jonin coughed.

"Ino-pig, you may have cheated your way onto Sasuke-kuns team, but I'm going to prove to him that I'm better than you by beating you here. Get ready for the beating of a lifetime." Sakura taunted, moving to stand across from Ino and taking up a stance that was full of holes.

Ino responded by simply unsealing her spear and shifting her weight forward.

"You have a weapon now?" Sakura asked, "It doesn't matter, it won't help you against me."

"Begin." The sickly jonin called, bringing his hand down between them in the universal start signal.

Sakura jumped back to gain some room and started weaving hand signs for a genjutsu. She didn't get past the second hand sign. Ino was on her alarmingly fast. To Sakuras sight, Ino had simply blurred forward and appeared in front of her. The blunt end of the spear violently collided with Sakuras stomach, knocking the wind out of her and preventing her from casting the genjutsu. Ino had flipped her spear around so as not to kill her opponent. A twirl of the spear send the shaft upwards, smashing into Sakuras face and sending her head rocketing back, blood flying from a split lip. The blunt end impacted her again and again on different parts of the body, like an jackhammer. The left shoulder, the chest, the right hip, the left thigh, the solar plexus. Sweeps mixed in, hitting her elbows, her knees, the sides of her head. Sakura couldn't do anything except take it. At the end of the onslaught, she was left bloody and bruised and she collapsed, barely holding onto consciousness.

"Winner by knock out, Yamanaka Ino." The sickly jonin called as Sakura was taken away to the medical bay.

Kakashi looked over at Kurenai.

"You know I was expecting my student to win, but that was just sad. Haven't you taught your student anything?" Kakashi asked reproachfully.

Kurenai couldn't say anything back. She looked away in embarrassment and silently promised to add physical fitness to her students training regiment.

As Ino joined her team on the balcony she was greeted by a conflicted looking Naruto.

"What's wrong?" Ino quizzed.

"I don't know how I should feel about this. On one hand you're my best friend and I'm happy that you won. On the other hand, Sakura-chan is the love of my life and she just got beaten up. It's so confusing!" Naruto whined.

Ino was vaguely flattered by Naruto calling her his best friend. Yeah she thought of him that way too but hearing it out loud was different than just knowing it.

"I'm sure she's fine Naruto. We take worse beatings from Bakashi-sensei all the time, and we're never down for long." She consoled, patting Narutos back softly.

"Yeah, I suppose." He allowed his spirits to be uplifted by Ino and they both turned their attention back to the monitor.

Uzumaki Naruto vs Kinuta Dosu

"Will Uzumaki Naruto and Kinuta Dosu come down to the floor." The sickly jonin requested.

"Be careful Naruto." Ino cautioned as Naruto moved passed her to the stairs. "I fought him while you were unconscious. Don't let him hit you. He has some kind of touch attack that vibrates things to pieces. Try to finish the fight as fast as possible."

Naruto gave her a thumbs up and moved down to the floor.

The two stood across from each other.

"I hope you won't feel any resentment towards me if I win. It's nothing personal." Dosu said.

"My teammates say you attacked us in the forrest. It's fine though. It's not like we know each other. So no hard feelings. Do your best." Naruto responded.

"Thank you, You as well." Dosu returned.

"Begin" The sickly jonin shouted,

Naruto stood for a moment as he reached into his side pouch for two directed explosive notes. His chakra control had been screwed up ever since his run in with that freaky Grass ninja, so he couldn't use a lot of his techniques. Sealing however, was totally viable. You didn't need much control to just shunt chakra in a particular direction.

Once he was ready with a directed explosive note in both hands, Naruto pushed off at Dosu as hard as he could. No doubt Dosu was a better ninja than Sakura, so he wouldn't be caught off guard by the level of speed Naruto normally had access to, even if he couldn't keep up with it. So Naruto just had to move even faster. To that end, he sent a burst of chakra to the bottom of his shoes as he pushed off and the resulting explosion cracked the ground, but also brought Naruto in up close and personal with Dosu so fast that Dosu could only widen his visible eye before Naruto struck out with both hands at the same time. Sticking the explosive notes to his chest and using Dosu's physical presence as a way to slow himself down by transferring all his speed to the Sound genin. Speed that was then added to as Naruto activated both directed explosive notes. To Dosu the notes felt like hammer blows to the chest when they activated and they propelled him backwards even faster, until he was forced to stop by the concrete wall behind him. His impact cratered the wall slightly and sent spider web cracks in all directions. All in all the fight lasted less than five seconds, and left Dosu barely alive. Most of his bones having been broken by the impact. Even as the medics took him away they weren't sure if he would survive.

There's something that must be understood about ninja for the average civilian to make heads or tails about why sometimes a ninja can be blown through a wall and be fine and other times they can trip and break their neck. Ninja are not actually any more or less durable than the average person. They're better at handling pain, yes, but that's not really the same thing. The only thing that makes a ninja better than a civilian, besides intense training in the use of the body as a tool for killing and training with a variety of actual weapons, is the ability to use chakra. If a ninja is prepared for an attack they can brace themselves and reinforce themselves with chakra. If done correctly, they can survive being punted through several trees. If you catch them by surprise though, they're as vulnerable as anyone else. If Tsunade of the Sannin were to punch Jiraiya of the Sannin in the head with her full strength and Jiraiya didn't reinforce his head with chakra to soften the blow and spread out the damage, his head would explode like any civilians would. If he did reinforce his head, but he failed to reinforce his neck, spine, shoulders, back, and chest, he would be decapitated by the force of the blow. Of course if Tsunade punched Jiraiya full strength and didn't reinforce her own arm, shoulder, spine, and hips, she would shatter every bone in one half of her body. This explanation doesn't take into account the various exceptional cases, but that's a lesson for another time.

"Winner by knock out, Uzumaki Naruto." The sick jonin coughed.

Most of the watching genin were shocked at the speed of the match.

"Way to go Naruto!" Ino high-fived him on his way passed her, back to his previous spot on her other side.

Kiba, meanwhile, was seriously reconsidering the threat posed by Narutos fuinjutsu.

Temari of the Sunagakure vs Kankuro of the Sunagakure.

"Aren't they teammates? That sucks." Chouji spoke around a mouthful of chips.

"Will Temari and Kankuro please come to the floor." The jonin wheezed.

Temari and Kankuro glanced at each other. Kankuro nodded and raised his hand.

"Proctor, I forfeit." Kankuro announced.

"Ok. Winner by forfeit, Temari." The sickly proctor said.

Inuzuka Kiba vs Abumi Zaku.

"Hah!" Zaku laughed, "You're bringing your dog with you?! Can't you fight without moral support?"

"Hey, don't make fun of Akamaru! If you're half as stupid as you look I won't need him, But I'm not taking any chances."

"Alright, but you'll only have yourself to blame when he dies." Zaku guffawed.

"Ready? Begin!" The coughing proctor jumped back.

Zaku opened the fight by immediately sending twin blasts to wind at Kiba who was forced to dodge, and dodge, and dodge again as Zaku kept on the heat and didn't let Kiba take any offensive actions. Zaku was forgetting about something though. Or more like disregarding something. He came to regret this choice as Akamarus chakra strengthened jaws bit down on his leg. Biting down as hard as he could, Akamaru could feel Zakus shin fracture and hear Zaku scream in pain.

The sudden lull in battle allowing Kiba to go on the offensive for the first time.

"Beast Imitation: All Fours Jutsu!" Kiba snarled.

He was on Zaku in the blink of an eye, Clawed hands wrapping around the back of Zakus head and knee rocketing towards his face. The crunch of Zakus nose was audible. Kiba jumped back. Zaku swayed on his feat, and collapsed.

"Winner by knock out Inuzuka Kiba" The coughing proctor announced as medics carried Zaku away.

Kiba breathed slowly and deeply to get his breath back, then he walked back up the the balcony.

Akado Yoroi vs Hyūga Negi

Negi and Yoroi calmly walked down to the floor.

"You should give up." Negi stated,"You were fated to lose the moment you became my opponent."

"Huh, I was about to suggest you do the same Hyūga Negi. I know about your clan and what you can do. My abilities perfectly counter yours." Yoroi replied.

"We shall see." Negi ended the back and forth and slid into a fighting stance, his body turned sideways to present a smaller profile, one arm forward; palm open, his legs spread to create a steady base.

Yoroi simply leaned forward like he was about to lunge, his hands taking on a faint blue glow.

"Begin!" The coughing proctor commanded, throwing his hand down between them and jumping back to clear space.

Yoroi lunged towards Negi with his hand outstretched, grasping at the Hyūgas face. Negi brushed Yorois reaching hand to the side and sent a palm at Yorois open stomach, only for Yoroi to intercept Negis hand with his own. Negi felt his attack connect and the chakra leave his hand, but nothing happened to his opponent, which was unusual. Then he felt his chakra being involuntarily sucked from his body and out of the hand still connected to Yorois. Negis eye widened in alarm and he jumped back. He activated his Byakugan and examined Yoroi. Byakugan only told him that Yoroi was using a jutsu, of some kind, on his hands, but didn't tell him what the jutsu did. Of course Negi could guess, based on that first exchange. Just to be sure, Negi sent out some probing strikes and observed what happened when his opponent blocked them. Seeing the chakra from his attacked get absorbed into the other boys hands and enter into the other boys chakra system.

"I see." The Hyūga observed. "You're absorbing the chakra from my attacks. What a formidable ability. It's a shame that such a strong power is in the hands of one so weak."

"I don't know. I seem to be keeping up with you, and that's all I really need after all. If I can defend against your attacks until you run out of chakra, I won't need to go on the offensive." Yoroi taunted.

Negi stared at him with a flat expression, "You seem to be under the impression that I was going all out just then. Powerful ability or not, it won't matter if you can't touch me to use it."

Negi started up the attack again, moving just a little faster than he moved on his initial attack. Yoroi kept up, blocking multiple palms to his stomach and chest. Negi upped the tempo. Yoroi kept up, but was visibly struggling. Negi curled two of his fingers back and tucked his thumb in and increased his speed even more. Yoroi was failing. He was panicking. He could only block ten percent of the Hyūgas attacks and his growing alarm was making him loose his cool which allowed even more attacks to get through. He had seriously underestimated his opponent. Yorois arms grew numb, more attacks got through his defenses. Yorois chest grew numb, he couldn't keep this up. Yoroi grew numb, his mind fuzzed at the edges. Yoroi slumped over unconscious. Negi stepped back and assessed his opponent.

"Winner by knockout, Hyūga Negi" The proctor wheezed as the Hyūga left the floor and walked back up to the balcony.

Yoroi was removed from the room by medics.

"Well done Negi!" The Hyūgas green spandex clad team mate congratulated, even as Negi ignored him.

Everyone still present turned to look at the computer monitor.

Aburame Shino vs Gaara of Suna

"Gaara of Suna and Aburame Shino, please come to the floor." the proctor requested.

The two calmly made their way down to the floor at a slow pace. neither said anything to the other as they looked across the way impassively.

"Begin!" The proctor called while jumping away.

For a minute nothing happened and neither fighter made a move. Then Shino lifted his arms up and held them out, palm open, towards Gaara. A patchy, black cloud gathered around the openings at the end of his sleeves. The black cloud was slow to move across the room, but made quick internal movements as if it was alive, agitated, and reluctant to cross the distance. The cork on Gaaras gourd popped off when the cloud had covered half the distance between them, a reddish tan mist of sand swirled out and floated protectively around it's wielder. As the thick, but patchy, black cloud grew closer; the veil of sand grew thicker and less mist like, enough gathering eventually for the drifting granules to gather into cords of sand, curling and twisting protectively around Gaara. Eventually the black cloud got too close for Gaaras liking and the sand cords opened up pockets to engulf a chunk, imploding in on itself and crushing the insects into bug juice. The rest of the cloud swarm paused in place, then retreated back to Shino at a faster speed than it approached in the first place.

"I forfeit." Shino spoke calmly, as the last of the swarm re-entered his sleeves.

"Winner by forfeit, Gaara of the Suna." The proctor announced, both genin walking back up to their respective balconies.

Tsuchi Kin vs Nara Shikamaru

"Ah, seriously? I have to fight a girl? What a drag." Shikamaru groaned, to the combined annoyance of all females present.

"You won't be complaining when I destroy you in this fight!" Kin yelled.

"Wait." Shikamaru cocked his head to the side lazily, "Why wouldn't I complain about losing?"

Kin stumbled over her thoughts for a moment, "Shut up! You won't be complaining because you're gonna be unconscious or dead!"

"Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Can we get this over with?" The Nara requested in a whining manner.

"Begin!" The proctor called, moving back to clear room.

"Die!" Kin screamed, throwing two handfuls of senbon at Shikamaru, forcing him to dodge.

Some of the senbon had bells attached to them and some didn't, something that Shikamaru picked up on in an instant.

"I see. You're using the senbon with bells on them to distract from the ones that don't have them. You're hoping that your target will be distracted enough that they'll fail to dodge the silent ones. No doubt you have some kind of paralyzing or numbing agent on the silent senbon, to increase their threat. I'm afraid that tactic won't work on me." The Nara observed.

Kin seemed a little taken aback, she actually hadn't put a paralyzing or numbing agent on the silent senbon, and she honestly wasn't expecting to get such a good idea out of this fight. She would have to remember that for later.

"You say that, but I only need to hit you once for the poison to take effect, and then you'll be helpless." The Sound genin claimed, deciding to run with her opponents assumption. Hopefully it would distract him enough that he wouldn't consider what kind of alternative function the bells could have.

She took out two more handfuls and threw them one after the other, rearming herself with another handful as she threw the senbon in her other hand. It allowed her to throw with higher accuracy, and meant that there was less breathing room for her opponent.

Shikamaru, for his part, simply dodged the onslaught of senbon the best he could while slowly making his way closer to the Sound genin. He wan't the fastest or most agile ninja, so this was actually quite challenging. The thing about his course of action though, was that the closer you get to someone throwing or shooting projectiles, the less time you have to react to those same projectiles and the harder it gets to dodge them. That said, it wasn't long before he didn't react in time and a few of the senbon hit him. He reacted by dropping all attempts to dodge and simply sprinting to close the distance between them. An action that shocked his opponent, but not enough that she couldn't respond in time.

Shikamaru heard the jingle of small bells and his sense of balance was destroyed as the world warped in his vision.

"Genjutsu" He thought as he collapsed to his hands and knees a few feet from Kin.

"Ha!" Kin gloated, "Look at you now. What was that about my tactics not working on you?"

Shikamaru didn't say anything. He just curled in on himself further.

"Oh wow. Does genjutsu really effect you this badly? That's amazing. I'm going to take my time with you, but first" Kin walked up to Shikamarus curled form and unloaded a kick into his stomach, "That's for the comment about my gender before the fight started." Kin said viscously. Then she noticed that something was wrong. She tried to step back again and reapply the genjutsu in case the pain from her kick broke him out of it, but she couldn't. She was frozen in place. "What is this? What's going on?" The Sound genin was panicking.

"Kagemane no Jutsu. Success." Shikamaru muttered just loud enough for the Sound genin to hear.

"What did you do?" Kin ground out as Shikamaru climbed to his feet.

"Look down." Shikamaru ordered, prompting Kin to glance at the floor and at the unnaturally dark shadow connecting their feet. "My original plan was to simply get close enough to use this technique and force you to surrender before the poison kicked in. I now know that you were bluffing when you claimed your senbon were poisoned, so that makes this easier… hooray… My jonin sensei specialized in genjutsu. I broke out of it the moment I realized there was one. I simply curled into a ball to hide the hand signs I was making. I was going to wait for an opportune moment to catch you off guard, but you made things easy for me when you kicked me. So, thanks for that." The Nara reached down to his thigh and moved his hand as if he was reaching into a pouch. There was empty space where he was reaching on his leg, due to the fact that he didn't keep his kunai pouch there in case of scenarios like this one. The same couldn't be said of Kin, who was forced to follow his movements and grab a kunai out of her pouch. "Now I'm going to give you a choice to surrender before I even do anything, then I'll give you another chance later."

"Do your worst Nara." Kin hissed.

Shikamaru stared at her for half a second, "Fair enough" Then he raised his clenched fist in the air over his head and brought it down on his thigh at high speed, forcing Kin to stab herself in the leg. She cried out in pain and whimpered when Shikamaru forced her to twist the knife and pull it out. She cried past closed lips, attempting to hold it in, when she was forced to stab herself in the shoulder, and in the stomach. "Give up yet?" he asked.

"Fuck you!" Kin screamed.

She stabbed herself in the hand and screamed as she was forced to grind the blade between her finger bones.

"You know. Giving you the option to surrender is really just a courtesy on my part. I could just kill you. It would probably be easier too." Shikamaru raised the kunai until the blade was tracing Kins jugular. "And it would be easy. I'll give you another chance to surrender. Then I think I'll just kill you."

"Proctor I forfeit." Kin whimpered.

"Winner by forfeit, Nara Shikamaru." The proctor announced as Kin was helped to the medical bay by some medics.

Shikamaru made his way back up the balcony as the computer chose the next people to fight.

Uchiha Sasuke vs Tsurugi Misumi

Both fighters jumped over the railing of the balconies and took up position on opposite sides of the room, staring at each other. Neither spoke as they sized their opponent up.

"Begin!" The proctor jumped back.

Sasuke dashed at his opponent at a speed that blurred in the perception of the slower genin still in the room. That's the thing about speed really. It's all relative. Things that are a blur for some are moving in slow motion for others. Ino was so fast that Sakura almost couldn't see her. Naruto, at his top speed, moves so fast that Ino almost can't see him. Sasuke is somewhere between his teammates in the speed department. Sakura wouldn't be able to see Sasuke or Naruto move, when they were moving at top speed, and Misumi wouldn't be able to react fast enough to fight if Naruto was fighting him. Naruto wasn't fighting Misumi though, Sasuke was. Thus when Sasuke closed the distance between them, Misumi only reacted in slight surprise before he swayed around Sasukes punch and proceeded to wrap his arm around Sasukes with the unnatural flexibility of a cooked noodle. Misumis arm constricted around Sasukes and started forcing in to bend in the wrong direction.

"You should give up." Misumi taunted.

Sasuke didn't respond and simply lashed out with his leg in an attempt to get away. Misumi caught Sasukes leg with his other arm and wrapped it up like he did with Sasukes arm, bending the joint the wrong way with a deliberate and tortuous slowness. The slow speed allowed Sasuke to know what was going to happen before it did, and that allowed him to dread it. It would be different if Misumi had simply snapped his joins, Sasuke could have dealt with that. It would have been painful, but it also would have been over in an instant. The wait was just as bad for him mentally as the injury would be physically. With two limbs caught, there wasn't a whole lot Sasuke could do anymore. Desperation was starting to sink in. You know what they say about desperation. Sasuke felt an itch at the base of his neck. The first weird occurrence Misumi noticed was that the tattoo on the Uchihas neck seemed to be spreading. The second weird occurrence was that his opponent suddenly gained the strength to fight against him. A feat that required a truly astonishing level of strength due to the fact that the Uchiha didn't have any leverage to push against and Misumi was strengthening himself with chakra. Sasuke forced his hands together and made some hand signs. Misumi attempted to get away, but he wasn't fast enough. Sasuke turned around, now on both feet, grasped him by the shoulders, and unleashed a stream of fire as wide around as a wagon wheel point blank into Misumis face.

Misumi screamed and thrashed and screamed some more. Then he stopped screaming, and he stopped thrashing. His body hit the ground with a thud. His head charred, black smoke and ash wafting into the air.

"Winner by death, Uchiha Sasuke." The proctor coughed.

Chunin gathered the body up and left to dispose of it. Sasuke was taken away, deeper into the tower, by a narrow eyed Kakashi.

"Well. Uh…" Naruto trailed off.

"I know that killing is legal during these exams, but I didn't think it would happen now that we're all here at the tower." Ino finished for him.

"Yeah… That was more brutal than I was expecting it to be…" The whiskered blond agreed.

Tenten of Konoha vs Rock Lee

"Do your best Tenten!" Lee exclaimed as they both made their way down to the floor side by side.

"Yeah, you too Lee." Lees bun haired teammate returned the sentiment.

"Begin." The sickly jonin proctor commanded, leaping away from the fight.

The battle began with Tenten unsealing a staff, thicker around than a bo staff and made of metal. Twirling it through the air for just a moment before advancing on her green clad teammate. Tenten knew she wasn't going to win a straight up taijutsu fight with Lee. She wasn't a juggernaut of physicality like he and their sensei were, and didn't have a powerful bloodline trump card to help make up the difference like Negi had, so she had to rely on her superior weapons handling ability and what fuinjutsu she knew. That said, she was only going to get as close as she absolutely had to to win this fight, in order to give herself more time to react if things started to fall out of her favor. Stopping just within comfortable attacking range Tenten sent a few probing thrusts in Lees direction, knowing that weren't going to hit, but wondering how Lee was going to handle this fight. Did Lee know that he wasn't going to win without closing the distance? He probably did, but he still might try to fight her without doing that, as a personal challenge for himself. Tenten would have felt vaguely insulted if he had done that. Luckily he didn't do that.

Twirling around the thrusts Lee unloaded a powerful side kick at Tenten, which she was able to deflect with some effort. There was a lot of momentum behind his kicks. She knew he wore weights, but they couldn't possibly be as heavy as they felt when blocking or deflecting his attacks. It would be ludicrous if they actually were. Continuing with the momentum and in the direction of her deflection she swung her staff into an overhead strike, which her teammate side stepped, retaliating a powerful and quick jab at close range. Tenten was thankfully able to maneuver her staff to block the punch, and use the imparted forced to make space between them. Making attacking easier for her and harder for him.

Things continued in this way for several minutes, Tenten and Lee trading blows with neither of them actually gaining the advantage. They knew each others fighting styles too well for this to end as quickly as the other battles had. Tenten thrust. Lee dodged and kicked. Tenten twirled to the side, bringing her staff in with her and spinning it around her waist to provide even more momentum for her following sweeping swing. Lee redirected the swing over his head the best he could and hit her with a quick back handed jab. The first blow to connect over their entire fight, and it may have just been a jab, but it hurt like a bitch. Tenten managed to minimize the damage by moving with the blow and retreating.

She held her head in one hand and made up her mind. Pretending to be more dazed than she was, she swayed on her feet slightly and lashed out at Lee when he moved to take advantage of her state. Ensuring that the end of her staff would miss him by several inches so he wouldn't bother to dodge, she sent a surge of chakra down the staff. There was an explosion of smoke. Lee sent hurtling out and into a wall, dragging some of the quickly thinning smoke with him. The smoke cleared and nobody could tell what happened.

Lee only knew that he was about to finish the fight when his vision was obscured by smoke and he felt like he had been hit by a train. This wasn't going to put him down though. It would with most genin, because most genin didn't constantly reinforce their own bodies when fighting. They only had a limited amount of chakra after all, that they would probably prefer to use on jutsu. Lee however was born with a genetic condition that prevented him from using chakra too far outside his body. His chakra was too unstable. It couldn't hold together when not in contact with him, quickly separating into yin and yang energies. That said, He could utilizes chakra inside his own body, and he did. He didn't have to worry about using jutsu, so he constantly used his chakra in the reinforcement of his body. He looked up to see that Tenten had stabilized herself and was holding her staff with a grimly unsurprised expression on her face.

Tenten didn't have to create that much smoke in the utilization of her attack, but it kept her secret from being revealed. It wouldn't due to give the game away before it was absolutely necessary. She was disappointed but not surprised when Lee got to his feet after taking a blow that would hospitalize most genin. It made this fight harder, but not necessarily impossible.

They moved to engage each other again. Trading blows, going back and forth. Lee launched into a round house. Tenten spun just out of reach and brought her staff low to trip him up. Lee didn't move. He planted both feet down and prepared to take the blow for an opening. He had weights on that weighed slightly less than half a ton. His teammates staff wasn't going to move him, and when her staff was stopped dead by his legs, he would use the opening to finish the fight.

Tenten swung her staff low. Lee didn't move. There was another explosion of smoke and Lee suddenly found his foundation ripped out from underneath him. Even through the weights acting as armor and his chakra reinforcing his legs, he could tell that his shins were going to bruise heavily from this. He hit the floor on his side and immediately rolled away from the spot. A decision that proved intelligent as his teammates staff billowed more smoke and there was a resounding crash.

The smoke cleared again and Tenten was standing, with her staff, breathing more deeply than usual. The floor in front of her was cratered, spider web cracks spreading in all directions.

Lee had to figure out what she was doing. He moved to attack, dodging and redirecting as necessary. He needed her to attack him with the smoke attack again. He dodged a thrust in a purposefully awkward manner, to bait an attack. It worked. Tenten swung her staff in an overhead attack, to crush him into the floor. Smoke engulfed the end. Lee rushed forward, headless of the fact that doing so meant he was going to get hit no matter what, even if it was just a glancing blow. The suddenly heavier than it should be staff crashed down on his shoulder, pushing him to a crouch. Lee lashed out with a kick to Tentens stomach, weaker than a normal kick due to his positioning, but more than enough to send her flying away from the staff. Tenten rolled to her feet and took a weary, defensive stance. The smoke cleared. The staff had been transformed into a large hammer, the head of which was imbedded in the floor.

Lee suddenly smiled, "What a magnificent weapon Tenten. You created that yourself? You used it wonderfully. I would be doing you a dishonor if I didn't get serious as well. Prepare yourself." Lee reached down and unclasped his leg weights. lifting them away from his legs, he threw them absently to either side.

In an absolutely fucking bonkers display the weights, which had seemed to float through the air so gently, hit the ground with room shaking force. Dust and debris billowed into the air, jagged pieces of the floor exploded in all directions.

Blown away though she was, Tenten had the presence of mind not to stop and stare like the rest of the genin up on the balconies. She wasted no time in creating a dome of unrolled sealing scrolls around her person. She wouldn't give Lee the time to attack her. She had to end this fight now. She didn't want to kill him though, he was still her teammate and friend. She channeled chakra through the scrolls lighting up the seals written on them and giving the paper thin barrier the strength and hardness of steel. Reaching into the various pouches strapped to her legs, she grabbed bundles of papers, bound together densely and tightly, each the size of a small fist. These were tiny explosive notes, each an inch both ways. So as not to kill Lee, she only took out half her stash. undoing the bindings, she launched the notes out of a small hole in the top of her dome. Not a moment too soon, she felt a sudden drain on her chakra as her sealing barrier struggled to hold up under the impacts of multiple attacks. Using a small wind jutsu to spread the notes around int the air, she stopped when the room started looking like a reverse snow globe. Then she set it off.

One note set off the next, and the next, in a chain explosion not dissimilar to a dust explosion. The only places safe from the explosion were the balconies, and only because the various jonin made sure of it. Needless to say, Lee wasn't spared. He survived, because of his constant chakra reinforcement, but he wasn't in good shape. He hit the ground littered with first and second degree burns.

"Winner-" "No!" Lee cut the proctor off as he struggled to his feet. "I- I'm sorry Tenten, but I can't allow you to win here. I need to make Gai-sensei proud. I need to prove to Negi and myself that Hard work and perseverance can beat natural talent." He breathed heavily, swaying and struggling to stay on his feet.

Tenten watched him with concern.

"Forgive me Tenten. I need to do this. GATE OF OPENING, OPEN!" He screamed, energy exploding off his body, his stance steadying.

"LEE, NO! WE DON'T USE THIS ON COMRADES, I DIDN'T TEACH YOU SO YOU COULD USE IT LIKE THIS!" Lees sensei shouted.

"GATE OF HEALING, OPEN!"

Tenten backed away in alarm as the burns scattered around Lees body started to slowly heal. She scrambled to ready herself. It didn't prove necessary. Lee slumped to the floor unconscious, their sensei standing over him.

"Tenten. I'm sorry." he apologized, "Proctor, Lee forfeits." He gathered up Lees body and took him to the medical bay.

"Winner by forfeit, Tenten of Konoha.

"Holy shit." Naruto breathed.

Akimichi Chōji vs Hyūga Hinata

"What's with all these teammate against teammate battles?" Ino asked

"Begin" The sickly proctor commanded, jumping away.

The two just looked at each other for a moment.

"Rock, paper, Scissors?" Chōji offered with a smile.

"No, not this time, I don't think." Hinata smiled back. "Do your best Chōji."

The battle began. This one a lot friendlier than most of the others, though no less serious. Chōji had a very heavy hitting style, whereas Hinata had a very flowing style. He would expand his limbs and she would flow around them. As the fight continued in became clear who was going to win. Despite the fact that she hadn't landed a solid blow on him the entire time, Hinata was clearly doing better. Chōji was slowing down. his movements becoming clumsier, his missed blows missing by a wider margin. To a standard viewer it wasn't clear what was happening. The only thing Hinata was obviously doing, was brushing her fingers around and against the exposed skin on Chōji every time she dodged an attack. The fight ended with her slipping past and through a final attack and gently holding Chōjis head in her hands. His eyes fluttered closed and she lowered him to the floor gently.

"Winner by knockout, Hyūga Hinata.

The preliminaries were over. Everyone was instructed to gather back down on the floor and draw numbered ballots from a container to decide who was fighting who in the tournament taking place in a month.

Uchiha Sasuke vs Temari of Suna

Hyūga Hinata vs Yamanaka Ino

Inuzuka Kiba vs Hyūga Negi

Tenten of Konoha vs Gaara of Suna

Uzumaki Naruto vs Nara Shikamaru

**&^%$# ! ! ! ! #$%$%^&*(*&*()_)))))_)_+_)(*&^&*()_++++===(*&*&^%$#$%^&*&^%$# 


	20. The Weak are Weeded Out Chapter notes

For some reason wouldn't let me submit the chapter and the chapter notes at the same time. I think the entire thing was just too long for it to handle, but i'm honestly not sure. anyway here are the notes for the last chapter.

1\. I didn't extend the part where Naruto and Ino run into the sand siblings, until Garra shows up, because I couldn't think of any content to bridge the gap between the sand siblings showing their chunin exam paperwork and Garra arriving. I wasn't going to put anything in that didn't need to be there for the betterment of the story and I realized that Naruto and Ino don't need to run into Garra here. Nothing would come from it. They did it in the anime to introduce the character so he didn't just show up out of the blue, but he already exists and the introduction of the sand siblings implies his presence.

2\. I had to think of a way for Ino to get Naruto the answers without directly possessing him, because that probably would have turned out very badly for her. She even needed to get him the answers in the first place because that's just what she was going to do regardless. She and Naruto are best friends, she wasn't going to just leave Naruto to his own devices while taking such an important test like this. If I made her do that, I would be making her act incredibly out of character.

3\. I didn't include the part where Ibiki explains the purpose of the test because it didn't need to be added. If you're reading a Naruto fan fiction, You have probably seen the show, and if you haven't, It's also highly unlikely that this fan fiction is the first one you have ever read on the subject. They explain it in the anime because they didn't want the viewers to be confused by what would otherwise seem like a random mess if you didn't spend time figuring out what actually happened.

4\. Naruto has supernaturally bad luck, because he inherited the Kyuubis negative karma. However, most small scale unlucky events don't work on him now, due to the fact that he's a ninja. He's not going to stub his toes in the middle of the night while going to the bathroom, no matter how inconveniently placed his couch is. He has too much awareness of his surroundings for that to happen. So nowadays, his bad luck just sort of builds on itself, building up and up until it has to power to really screw him over.

5\. I feel I should clear something up. I'm not steering Ino and Naruto together in a romantic sense. If it happens, it happens, but I'm not going to force it. It's possible for a girl and a guy to just be friends without any romantic feelings being involved. I had Ino get dragged along for the ride with Naruto because in the anime Orochimaru sends his wind jutsu straight down the middle of the group, which is where Naruto happened to be. In this case Ino was there, but I couldn't see how she would survive an encounter with a giant snake alone, so I sent Naruto with her. Don't get me wrong, Ino's a lot better than she was in the academy and she's pretty strong for a genin now, but she still started taking things seriously way later than her team mates. She also doesn't really have any heavy hitting techniques. I'll have to remedy that in the future. No wait! She might have been able to possess the snake with her mind transfer jutsu… huh… well, oh well. I already wrote out the scene and I'm not changing a perfectly good scene just because I thought of an equally good one. Plus explosions are cool.

6\. I Briefly thought about just having Orochimaru knock Naruto out, but I decided against that. The reason for that is because getting into a battle with an S-rank missing nin as a genin and only getting knocked out would be a god damned miracle. Naruto isn't lucky enough for that to happen to him. Therefor he got the Gogyo Fuin applied to him. It's a more unfortunate occurrence.

7\. Yeah I know teams seven and sound had the reverse scrolls in canon, but who cares.

8\. I figured I would make the effects of the curse seal less immediately apparent… You know besides the obvious power boost. I mean the mental effects are less immediately apparent. It doesn't cause you to go berserk. It slowly twists your psyche, the longer it goes unchecked, by whispering into your brain until you're mentally unrecognizable as the person you were before it was applied.

9\. For the preliminaries I used a random number generator to determine who was going to fight who. Except in the case of Ino and Sakura who I deliberately set up, in order to show how vastly Ino outstrips Sakura as a ninja with only six months of serious training. It's supposed to be a wake up call for Sakura. There were also certain match ups that I couldn't allow to happen because I needed both characters to make it to the finals, like when the number generator tried to make Naruto and Garra fight. That can't happen yet. So it was mostly random, with just some general guidelines to keep everything from running off the rails. I actually didn't set Shikamaru and Kin up to fight each other by choice here, that was all the random number generator.

10\. The fight between Sakura and Ino is essentially a curb stomp battle in Inos favor. You have to remember that Kakashi has been training Ino really hard for the past six months and Ino has started to take her own training just as seriously. Sakura hasn't trained her physical body since she got out of the academy. Physically she's basically just a civilian who's in pretty good shape. The only thing she's trained in is her genjutsu and only that because it comes easily to her. She's less useless than she is in canon, but only barely. While Ino Is already around low chunin level in ability.

11\. Did you know that canonically Temari, Kankuro, and Garra don't actually even have a last name… Until Temari marries Shikamaru that is… Then her last name is Nara, but still. I looked them up on the Naruto wiki to ensure I could spell their last names right, but they apparently don't have last names. Why do random Sound ninja who die only an episode or two after they're introduced get last names, but not super important characters like the Sand siblings?

12\. You would not believe the amount of trouble I had with thinking up Kibas response to Zakus taunt about Akamaru. It was stupid hard. I suppose it's because I haven't written about him that much, so his personality isn't as defined in my head as Naruto's.

13\. I didn't actually plan for Sasuke to kill Misumi. It just happened naturally as the fight went on.

14\. For the Tenten vs Lee fight, I kind of wanted Tenten to win, so I was a little biased in that direction, but I would only allow her to win if I could think of a reasonable way to do it. If I couldn't think of a way for her to realistically win, Lee would win. See I thought to myself "Ok so Tenten is a weapons and fuinjutsu specialist with an entire years worth of experience over Naruto and Naruto can do some pretty cool stuff with the basics of fuinjutsu, so why wouldn't Tenten also be able to do some amazing stuff as well. Add to that, that realistically she wouldn't specialize only in throwing weapons, she would get good at melee weapons to, and you have the fight between Tenten and Lee.

15\. It occurred to me just now that I keep switching the names for small things back and forth. Like I called rock, paper, scissors that in the first few chapters, but I called it Jan Ken Pon on the wave arc. I just called it rock, paper, scissors in this chapter again. I also go back and forth on the spelling of characters names occasionally. I'm going to do my best to stop doing that.

16\. I think this chapter may be the longest one yet… I'm honestly not sure, but it feels long.


	21. The month between

Chapter… something. I lost track to be honest… You know what's a show that definitely deserves more attention? Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja. I wouldn't put in the same category as the cartoon elites such as Gravity Falls and Steven Universe, or less recently Danny Phantom and Kim Possible, But I would definitely say it's at least as good as Ben Ten and Ben Ten spawned like eight spin offs. 9th Grade Ninja lasted for like a season and a half, but it really deserves more than that. Maybe they wrap everything up in that time, but if they do it's because they had to. Also I don't know if they wrap it all up in that time as I'm not done watching all the episodes. The intro is super catchy too. Holy crap! It's been eight months since I last updates this story. How the time slips away.

Kakashi was at a bit of a loss at how to proceed. His team was the only team whose entire membership made it to the final round. Not that he wasn't happy for them, they all worked hard for it after all, and they definitely deserved to be there. However prior to their entrance into the exam he trained them to work flawlessly as a team, all their training sessions were together. Now though, they may have to face each other over the course of the tournament. Kakashi would need to separate them and train them each individually. Something he wasn't looking forward to, as it was pretty hard to be in three places at once and shadow clones wouldn't exactly be able to hold up under the intense conditions he was planning to train them under. Perhaps he could cycle through them. Be there in person one third of the time and send a shadow clone the other two thirds of the time. It wasn't an ideal solution, but it was better than nothing.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of girlish giggling as he passed the hot springs. Being the upstanding Konoha jonin that he was, he had no choice but to check it out and maybe put a stop to it. depending on what the source actually was.

"Jiraiya-Sama?" He asked having immediately recognized the mane of white hair, on top of a green and red shirt, wearing wooden clogs, crouched next to the wall of the women's bathing area and presumably peaking through a hole to see inside. How could he not recognize his sensei's sensei?

Ok. Kakashi just had an idea that, if it worked, would allow him to use his training time more efficiently.

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The entire team passing called for a celebration. That said, Ino wanted to go to a sushi restaurant, but for some reason most stores didn't like Naruto so she got sushi to go and sat with Naruto at Ichiraku Ramen. Sasuke of course declined to attend the celebration, though Ino was used to that. She would have pestered him about going more but to be honest, she was getting tired of his constant rejections. She still loved him, but a girls allowed to take a break every once in a while. It wasn't a crime to want to hang out with someone who didn't push her away, especially when that someone was her best friend. Besides Naruto understood constant rejections, what with his situation with Sakura and all. Though Ino didn't see what Naruto saw in Sakura. Whatever though, Ino wasn't here to think about the various aspects of their lives that weren't perfect; she was here to celebrate the parts that were.

"Man. We all made it. It's almost hard to believe." Ino sighed while reminiscing, "I mean yeah we still have to fight in the tournament in a month, but we've been through so much already. The Written test. The Forrest of Death, I still can't get over that guy from Grass, what was he even doing in the test?"

"I've had a chance to look at what he did, and I'm ninety percent sure he put some kind of restraining seal on me." Naruto remarked, pausing from slurping his ramen down. "No idea why. It's way too complicated for me to figure out."

"You're ninety percent sure? What's the other ten percent? The Blonde girl asked.

"He could have also tattooed random squiggles onto my stomach. I can't actually say for sure. I may be studying seals but if he did put a seal on me, it's more advanced than any I have ever seen before. I just recognize some stuff about the patterning and there are a few characters I recognize from my own seals." The Blond boy returned.

"You should get that looked at." Ino told him, a look of concern crossing her face.

"I will later. Right now I want to celebrate." he stopped talking to take another bite of noodles, "By the way, what happened while I was unconscious? I never got the full story."

"Well you know that the Sound genin attacked us." She waited for him to nod, "I didn't get a good impression of the Sound village from the genin that attacked us. At one point I held the one with bells hostage at spear point and her teammates didn't even care! They attacked me anyway. What kind of people don't care about the lives of their teammates?!"

"Bad ones." Naruto interjected.

"Yeah ok, that's obvious, but still. It just rubbed me the wrong way."

"Well hey. What happened next?" Inos best friend interrupted her brooding thoughts.

"Oh yeah. Sasuke-kun woke up and drove them off. It was kind of scary though." She paused to collect her thoughts. "He had these weird squiggly tattoos spread out over his skin and his chakra almost looked purple."

"Huh. That's weird…" Naruto trailed off.

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"You almost lost." A thought hissed insidiously from the corners of Sasuke's mind. He didn't need reminding of that, especially not from himself. He should have been stronger than that rice noodle genin. He shouldn't have needed the help of, what Kakashi had explained was a curse seal designed to grant power in return for lowering critical thinking skills. It was a crutch that Sasuke didn't want.

On the subject, He felt kind of bad for killing his opponent. Rice noodle genin was another Konoha genin after all. Even if they were temporarily opponents and the genin was clearly a sadist or something, they were comrades the rest of the time. He didn't even remember rice noodle genins actual name.

"It was his own fault" His own voice reminded him, and yeah that was kind of true. Sasuke wouldn't have used the curse seal if rice noodle genin hadn't been acting so sadistically, but breaking someones arm was not equal to setting someones head on fire. The logic circled back around on itself in a way. Sasuke only killed rice noodle genin because his critical thinking skills were lowered at the time. His critical thinking skills were lowered because he was using the curse seal. He used the curse seal because he was panicking. He was panicking because the rice noodle genin was breaking his arm and leg excruciatingly slowly. So yes, the rice noodle genin was at fault for his own death, but that didn't change the fact that Sasuke shouldn't have even needed the curse seal to win.

"You need more power"

Sasuke stood up and grabbed his gear. He needed to train more.

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Though disappointed that he hadn't managed to pass onto the third test with his teammates, Chouji supposed it couldn't be helped. He had been fighting Hinata after all. As quiet as she was, she was surprisingly strong. Wasn't there a saying or something about that? Speak softly but carry a big sword? Was that how the saying went? Whatever, it didn't really matter.

"Guys I'm fine, really. I'm just happy you two made it." He said for what felt like the thirtieth time. Trying, somewhat fruitlessly, to calm Hinata and Kiba down… Well more Kiba than Hinata. While she had been worried that she might have hurt him at the start, she calmed down once it became obvious he was fine. Kiba though was oddly pissed off, and not just about his own failure to pass the preliminaries. As long as Chouji could remember Kiba hated Naruto. Chouji didn't know the reason, he never asked and Kiba never told him. Despite that though, Chouji thought it was kind of dumb that Kiba was pissed about Narutos entire team passing.

"This is bullshit!" Kiba screamed.

"Kiba." Hinata quietly reprimanded him.

"Sorry." He flinched slightly. "This is stupid though. Not only did fox breaths entire team make it, but we didn't even have the option for that!" He panted slightly. "Why were there so many teammate on teammate battles? Why did our team have to be one of the ones it happened to?"

"Hey, don't worry about it. It was just bad luck on our part. besides I'm not upset that I didn't make it. I'm really just happy I didn't have to fight that Lee guy. That guy was crazy." Chouji placated him.

"I can't not worry about it. It get's on my nerves." Kiba turned towards Hinata, "Come on Hinata, we need to train. We have to be so strong by the time the third test happens that we blow the competition out of the water." He started towards the training grounds.

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Sakura sat under a tree at her teams training ground. She supposed she should be happy for Shikamaru, the only member of her team to make it to the final test of the exams, because as annoying as he was; he had grown on her, but she couldn't bring herself to care at the moment.

She lost. She lost to her eternal rival for Sasuke-kuns affections, who had manage to get on his team where she failed. Sakura didn't understand it. She was better than she was before. She found genjutsu and discovered she had a natural talent for it. She practiced it every day. How could her effort mean nothing in the end? How could Ino be so much better? A weapon shouldn't have made a difference, Ino shouldn't have been able to get close to her.

Sakura's musings were cut short by the appearance of her sensei beside her.

Kurenai-sensei let out a sigh and started talking, "It's come to my attention recently that I've failed you as a teacher."

Sakura stared at her "What do you mean sensei?"

"I may be a jonin, but I've never had a team before, and I didn't consider that you might need more guidance towards becoming a strong kunoichi than your teammates, who had their entire clans to back them up and help make up for my lack of teachings. I failed your teammates as well, but they at least still had their clans to fall back on for extra training. You did not, and for that I apologize." Kurenai-sensei bowed her head momentarily. "You lost to Yamanaka-san in your match with her, but that's my fault. Hatake-san has been training his students in more than just his specialty for the last six months. He's been helping them branch onto their own paths, while also ensuring that they're as well rounded as possible. I've just been teaching you genjutsu, and I didn't even push you once it became obvious you were a natural, I thought your natural talent was enough. The way I've been teaching you, you didn't stand a chance. I'm sorry. From now on, I'll be doing everything in my power to help you and your teammates become excellent ninja."

Sakura didn't know how to feel about what her sensei said. On one hand she wanted to blame everything on her sensei, how dare she not try her hardest when training Sakura. On the other hand though, Sakura couldn't blame her sensei exclusively. Sakura certainly hadn't tried her hardest. She, like her sensei, had assumed that her natural talent with genjutsu would allow her to overcome any amount of training Ino did. She had a clearer perspective now, after seeing the kinds of things the other genin were capable of; through the view screen in the medical bay, attached to a few cameras in the arena; she knew that she was weak.

Naruto-baka could move with explosive speed, so fast Sakura could't see him move. To her he simply disappeared from his starting point and reappeared body checking the sound genin.

Hinata, who was so timid at the academy, gracefully dissected Chouji without getting hit once.

When the two older Konoha genin fought it was the most incredible display of skill and power Sakura had ever seen.

Though she wasn't in the right frame of mind to appreciate it at the time, her own defeat at the hands of Ino proved how much Ino had grown and how much Sakura had stayed the same.

Even though Sakura wanted nothing more than to lay the blame for her failure directly at the feet of her sensei, she couldn't. To do so would require she lie to herself, and that wasn't something she believed she could do.

"I forgive you sensei." Sakura finally replied, "I can't blame you completely. It was my choice not to work hard when you didn't force me. From now on, I promise to do my best to become an excellent kunoichi. Please take care of me." She bowed.

Kurenai-sensei didn't respond, except for a proud smile that stretched over her lips.

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The three genin of team seven gathered at their normal training ground, to the almost jaw droopingly shocking sight of Kakashi, who was actually on time for once. Less notable was the unknown older man standing next to him.

"Good, you're all here. Allow me to introduce the sensei of my sensei, Jiraiya-sama." Kakashi-sensei gestured towards the older man, who posed as though waiting for an applause.

He was met with blank, looks all around.

"Um, nice to meet you?" Was Ino's response when it seemed like nobody else was going to say anything.

"Really?!" Jiraiya exclaimed in a disgruntled fashion, "What are they teaching kids at the academy these days?" He sighed and dragged a hand down his face. "Kakashi's sensei was the fourth hokage, and I was the fourth hokage's sensei." He spread his arms out in a gesture that invited praise.

"Holy hell, really?!" Naruto asked, suddenly a lot more enthusiastic to be meeting this old guy, and he wasn't alone in his sudden increase in enthusiasm.

"Thank you!" Jiraiya dropped his arms, "That's the proper response to meeting me. Anyway I was back in the village and your sensei here recruited my help in training you. After hearing that your entire team made it to the final round of the exam I couldn't refuse, after all you're the students of my students student. That makes you kind of like my great grand students."

"I don't know how to respond to that." The Whiskered blond answered flatly, enthusiasm somewhat dampened by the older mans ludicrous statement.

"Don't respond to it, it doesn't matter." Jiraiya waved his hand through the air as if clearing it of confusion. "What matters is that I'm here to help you three train for the third test of the chunin exams."

"So!" Kakashi clapped his hands together to regain their attention. "This is how it's going to work: Every day for the next month I'm going to be splitting you three apart. One of you will train with me, one of you will train with Jiraiya-sama, and one of you will train with my shadow clone. The next day we'll rotate so we're training a different student. The next day we'll rotate again and train whoever we didn't get time with. then we'll go back around again. Today Jiraiya-sama will train Naruto, I'll train Ino, and my shadow clone will train Sasuke."

Jiraiya took Naruto off to the side, and Kakashi did the same with Ino.

Though he wasn't happy to be stuck with a mere clone for his first day of training, Sasuke wasn't going to complain. Besides He'd get to train with either Kakashi or the fourths sensei the next day.

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"Alright kid, I hear you've been practicing sealing." The old dude started with once they made it far enough away from Narutos teammates that they weren't in sight anymore.

"Yep, some of my best moves are from sealing" Jiraiyas blond charge replied.

"Well, it's your lucky day because I happen to be a sealing master, so that's what we're going to be working on during our training days."

"Alright! This is going to be awesome!" His excitement was palpable.

"First though, I need you to show me your best stuff, so I know how advanced you are and what kind of base your working with."

Naruto drew out some scrolls and took off his sandals and fingerless gloves. Unrolling the scrolls and turning over his sandals he began to explain.

"Alright, so I'm not that far into sealing. I've really only studied sealing scrolls and explosive notes. Though I have started working on reinforcement seals recently" Naruto explained.

"Well hell, that's as solid a base as any. I mean it may not be fancy like a stasis array, but you can do some pretty cool stuff with just that."

"Right, so I have these gloves with seal reinforced plates." The genin held up the fingerless gloves, which Jiraiya took to examine. "I also have my sandals." He turned the bottoms up to show a seal etched metal plate embedded in the soul of each. Putting down the gloves, Jiraiya took the sandals while Naruto spoke. "I carved my own design for a focused explosive tag into them. If I brace myself I can set them off while standing still and be in your face in nothing flat. I can also use them to make my kicks explode!" Jiraiya hummed thoughtfully, and Naruto finally just handed over a sealing scroll for him to look at. Which he did.

"This is just a normal sealing scroll." Jiraiya-sensei raised an eyebrow at Naruto.

Naruto looked almost embarrassed, but really proud at the same time.

"It's dumb, that's my favorite. It's my first powerful jutsu. I made a sealing scroll dumb enough to fuse everything put into it into one thing. Then I sealed a bunch of rocks into it. I call it "Big Rock no Jutsu". I just jump into the air above my target, unseal it, and let it crush them to paste." Naruto looked pleased with himself.

Jiraiya-sensei looked at him flatly for a second. "Ha! haha! Oh man. I have honestly never heard of anyone doing that. That's amazing, oh man. It's simple, but it works. You mind if I borrow that Idea? I'll teach you how to make it better in return." he Bartered.

"Sure!" Naruto enthused, happy to accept help with making his first sealing technique even more amazing.

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Sasuke and the Kakashi clone stood across from each other in a clearing separate from their normal team meeting spot.

"Hmm, training you will be a little bit more difficult than it will be for your teammates. You don't have a specialty. You being the most well rounded on the team, and that's not a bad thing, but it does mean you don't have a conveniently present primary skill we can refine, or a weakness we can work to shore up." Fake Kakashi said.

"Where are you going with this?" Sasuke asked impatiently.

"I'm getting to it." Clone Kakashi replied, making a motion with his hands and arms as if he was slightly pushing something level with his head forward using open palms. "What I'm saying is that since you don't have a specialty and a month isn't really enough time to advance noticeably in more than one or two skills, we'll have to work on refining what skills you already have and finding newer ways to use them."

"So what are we going to work on?" Sasuke asked.

"Well I'm a only a clone, one good hit and I'm gone. So we'll be working on refining your jutsu."

Sasuke hummed appreciatively.

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"What are we going to train Bakashi-sensei?" Ino asked, sitting on one of the logs in team sevens training ground.

"Well, unfortunately I don't know any of your clan jutsu, so I'll have to leave that up to your family. However, you've come far with the use of your spear. So we'll be focusing on improving your skills with it almost exclusively this month. Jiraiya-sama may set you to doing something else, but whenever you're with me or a clone of me, we'll be training your spear skill." Her cyclopian sensei replied.

Ino may not have respected her sensei that much as a person, but she could at least respect his skill as a ninja. So hearing him praise her spear skills pleased her to no end.

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Exploding after a backwards moving Kakashi-sensei, Naruto was running into a problem with using his explosion shoes as a means of prolonged transport. Of course that was the point of practice wasn't it. They didn't really have enough time to increase his speed remarkably faster than he already was, but that's why they were trying this. His explosion shoes could be used as a method of gaining speed, as well as making his kicks hurt more and stopping him when he was already going fast. If he kept setting them off he would keep going faster and faster, and if he aimed well enough he could also use the explosions as a means of turning while mid air. Of course his turning radius was incredibly wide, and he didn't have wings to stay in the air. Something he was coming to the conclusion was a problem as he kept crashing into trees and skidding along the ground like a stone skipped over a pond. It fucking hurt. Again though, that was the point of practice, so things like that would stop being an issue by the time the third test came around.

"Whew" Kakashi-sensei exhaled, "You'll have to get up if you want any chance of beating me." He said, watching Naruto crash into a tree for the fifteenth time that day. Their training exercise being a high speed spar, during which Naruto was only allowed to move using his explosion shoes.

Naruto grumbled as he pulled himself to his feet. Then he had an idea. This entire time he had been firing off both shoes at the same time, resulting in a huge, but almost uncontrollable burst of speed. What if he only set off one at a time? It would allow for a more controlled speed increase, and might let him turn more easily. Hell it might even fix his problem with crashing into the ground.

Naruto exploded towards Kakashi-sensei again, but at half the speed he normally did… And immediately crashed because he failed to account for the fact that only using one shoe might require he brace himself differently.

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Jiraiya stood to the side while Sasuke channeled chakra into a small piece of paper. The entire thing crumpled in on itself and the edges caught fire.

"Huh, seems like fire isn't even your primary affinity. It's secondary to electricity. It's probably not even natural." Jiraiya commented, "By that I mean, you were born with an elemental affinity for electricity, but you acquired an elemental affinity for fire from working on your family jutsu."

"So?" Sasuke asked expectantly.

"Unfortunately we don't have enough time to train you in the direct manipulation of your elements, but we do have enough time to teach you a jutsu or two." Jiraiya replied.

"Why don't I just copy jutsu with my Sharingan?"

"No we won't be doing that. No offense but the Sharingan isn't the best tool for training or learning. Yes it does let you copy other peoples ninjutsu and taijutsu, but in the end that's little more than a parlor trick. What you copy with your Sharingan isn't truly learned. You can technically use what you copied at any time, but you won't. The Sharingan only provides the knowledge on how to do a jutsu. It does not provide the inclination or the reflex." The older man explained at length, "You may be able to use a jutsu you copied from someone else, but without their experience with that jutsu, you won't be able to use it nearly as effectively. Not only that, but if you train a jutsu the old fashion way, it will become an ingrained response to a situation and happen reflexively. Say you learned an earth wall jutsu the normal way, then say you copied it. If someone sent a wind attack at you, then if you learned it the normal way, using the earth wall jutsu would be a reflexive response. If you copied the earth wall jutsu and someone sent a wind attack your way, you probably wouldn't even think to use it and you would just get swept away."

Sasuke listened seriously, "So what jutsu are you going to teach me then?"

"Playing to your strengths, we're going to start with a electricity jutsu." Jiraiya told him, "It's simple and simply named. It's called Electric Charge Jutsu. It allows you to create an electric charge in your hands or into a held weapon. It discharges the moment in comes in contact with something, so you'll have to reapply it once you use it, but it can be surprising and cause an opponents muscles to momentarily lock up, giving you an opening."

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Due to the fact that she only had a Bakashi clone to work with today, Ino and clone sensei were not sparing in the traditional sense. Leagues above her he may have been, Bakashi wasn't going to take the chance that his student might get absurdly lucky and score a hit hard enough to dispel the clone. Bakashi wasn't a chakra monster, he could only remake the clone a few times before that became impossible. That in mind what they were doing instead was that Fake Bakashi was striking at her with a variety of blunted weaponry and Ino was only allowed to defend herself. This allowed for a comparatively dramatic increase to her previously almost non existent spear defense skills. Prior to this training, her only means of defense with a spear was to attack before she could get attacked or attack while on the retreat.

"Hrg" Ino grunted as she employed a previously unused tactic of blocking with the shaft of her spear. Before that she had always managed to get away with simply dodging, but this strike came just as she was landing from dodging something else so she didn't really have the time to dodge again, unless she wanted to thoroughly ruin her footing and probably get hit anyway.

"Nice. If you continue to do this well, I'll add a no dodging rule next week. That way you can get used to parrying." Fake Bakashi-sensei remarked cheerfully, ignoring the groan of dread from his charge.

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Today Naruto was set to working on his running technique by Clone Kakashi-sensei. He already knew a lot about running skillfully and efficiently, given that his entire taijutsu style revolved around running and never stopping, but that didn't mean he knew everything. He was only twelve after all. So Kakashi-sensei, being a much more experienced ninja knew a lot more about running technique than Naruto did. They were having a soft contact spar, but Naruto was only allowed to move if he brought a small ball with him, that he wasn't allowed to pick up and hold, meaning Naruto just had to kick it along in front of him as he followed the Kakashi clone around the field… It was slow going.

"What's the point of this again?" The Blond jinchuriki asked, momentarily stumbling.

"It's to improve your running efficiency. Long strides use energy too quickly and they force you to slow down more. It may seem counter intuitive, but shorter steps allow you to run at higher speeds for longer." Kakashi-sensei clone explained, lazily holding a single finger in the air.

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Kakashi languidly drifted through a barrage of small fire balls sent by his student, all the while noting Sasukes creative application in combining two jutsu. The shuriken hidden in the fire balls being charged with electricity from what Kakashi could tell. Didn't matter because none of them hit, but it still deserved a clap. One slow clap, but a clap none the less.

Sasuke wasn't idle while his sensei weaved through the fire, running through another set of hand seals he bit down on the wires trailing the shuriken and spat out a roaring dragon of flame that raced towards his sensei, who dodged over it easily, prompting Sasuke to send a Great Fire Ball at him.

No doubt engaging his sensei in a taijutsu bout would have been less exhausting at this point, but Sasuke was only allowed to use ninjutsu for this match. Given his lack of a central skill for them to work on, all they could do was refine all his skills, and what better way to refine a skill than to restrict the user to that skill and nothing else.

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"Hmm" Jiraiya hmmed, while watching Ino run through her spear training exercises, "I can't say I have much experience with spears. So I wouldn't have much to teach you unfortunately."

"What are you going to teach me than?" Ino demanded.

"Come here." Jiraiya pulled out a small piece of paper, "Channel chakra into this, it'll tell us your elemental affinity and I'll see if I have any appropriate jutsu to teach you."

Ino grabbed the piece of paper and charged chakra into it. The paper crumbled into soggy dust.

"Well look at that. You have two elemental affinities. Good for you. Now most of my earth jutsu range from a little bit over your level to a lot over your level. I can however teach you a water jutsu. Tell me, have you ever heard of the water clone jutsu?" Jiraiya asked.

,MAGNETISMWOULDWORKTO.

"See, if you do this." Jiraiya-sensei explained, making a mark on the scroll, "It'll modify your sealing scrolls so they expel the boulder at incredible speeds."

"Oh Shit!" The Jinchuriki exclaimed, "I forgot to ask you. This guy in the Forrest of Death placed a seal on me and I don't know what it does. I wanted to ask if you could look at it."

Narutos senseis senseis sensei suddenly sobered up and a serious expression appeared on his face as he motioned the Jinchuriki over. Naruto lifted his shirt and Jiraiya examined the seal closely, muttering to himself.

"Ok, I know what this is and how to remove it." Jiraiya ran through some hand seals and pressed the blue fire engulfed fingers of his hand into Narutos stomach. "How did you get this?"

"Some freaky snake ninja from Grass country put it on me."

The older mans face became even more grim and he seemed lost in thought for a few minutes, then his expression cleared.

"Well no use worrying about that now. Lets get back to the lesson. With this seal placed in the sealing array here." Jiraiya-sensei pointed to a spot just outside the primary containment array. There was a seal there that Naruto was learning had to do with specifying direction. "And another force seal placed on the other side." He made another seal opposite the direction seal. "You can launch the boulders out of your sealing scrolls like they were loosed from a catapult."

"That's soooo cooool!" Naruto gushed. "Oh I just had an idea! Could you teach me how to unseal something only part of the way?"

"Like unsealing only half of a bike?"

"Yeah! but more like a tenth."

"Sure. Why though."

"You'll see."

HAVEYOUEVERSEENASHOWTRYTOCREATEANINWORLDVIDEOGAME?THEY'REALWAYS

"If you can find a way to use your hands during this fight without removing the hand cuffs, I'll allow it, but until then kicks only." Clone Kakashi had said around an hour previous.

This was unbelievably hard.

Sweep kick. Clone Kakashi jumps over it. Launch off the ground into a butterfly kick. Kakashi kicks off Sasukes own feet to clear the distance away. High kick. Dodged. Low kick. Dodged.

Sasuke supposed that was the point of practice though.

' 'VENEVERSEENGAMES

Staff clashed against spear shaft as Bakashi-sensei swung diagonally at his student. They finally got to full contact sparing after weeks of training. Bakashi-sensei using a staff because it was the closest thing to spear he had experience with.

Ino thrust her spear forward. Bakashi turned it just enough to the side that the tip passed over his shoulder. He swung towards her legs. She stepped back and caught the back of his staff, adding force so he would over extend. She swiped at his legs while his staff was in the air. He brought his staff slamming to the ground and caught her spear on it. He stepped into her guard and swung his staff up. She leapt back.

They had been at it for hours, but Ino could see the improvements she'd made since she started.

' 'STHATTHEYDON'TEVENMAKEMECHANICALSENSE.

Well, the four weeks had passed and Team seven couldn't say they'd wasted their time. Though they didn't know what their team mates were doing over the month, they couldn't help but feel proud of both themselves and their team mates as they stood in front of the arena that the third test was taking place in.

They took their first steps across the threshold and made their way through the corridors until they found themselves in the main arena.

They lined up with the other genin who were already there and basked in the cheering roar of the crowd.

A jonin with a senbon in his mouth stood in front of them.

"Alright, now that everyone's here." He started, "I'm Genma and I'll be the proctor for the third test. If I say a fight is over, the fight is over and you will listen to me or you'll be disqualified from the competition. Is that understood?"

He waited for their various methods of confirmation.

"Good." He took a deep breath, "THEN LET THE THIRD TEST OF THE CHUNIN EXAMS BEGIN!" he bellowed for the benefit of the crowd, who roared back their enthusiasm.

! #$%^%$# #$%^&*()_)(*&^$#$$%^&*&^%$#$%^&*()_)(*&^%$##$%&*()(*&^%$#$%^*()(*&^

So I finished watching all the episodes of Randy Cunningham 9th grade Ninja, and they do not wrap the story up. It's a shame. The intro is still real catchy, I sometimes listen to it on Youtube because it's so catchy. Incidentally, I'm definitely support the pairing of Randy and Heidi.

Notes:

I didn't do this chapter for a while even though I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, because i'm a lazy person. Though, keeping with the pattern, you would not believe how hard it was for me to write Kibas dialogue. He exists in a weird personality space that's close to Narutos and Inos but different in such a way that it's actually kind of hard for me to wrap my head around him. Like if you didn't notice, Naruto and Ino basically have the same personality template. They're obviously different because of their differing experiences, but they have similar thought processes and reactions to new stimuli, though Ino's slightly more patient. Kiba on the other hand, is only similar to them on a superficial level. He's more aggressive, impatient, and angry, but he's also pack oriented. He's less creative in general and more hardheaded. He's almost exactly the opposite of me personality wise, so whenever I write anything involving him I have to think about what his thoughts and reactions are going to be very carefully. I'm trying to write someone who's nothing like me, so it's a struggle to keep him consistent and in character.

I'm thinking about starting another story to write in-between chapters in this story, to provide myself with a little variety so I don't burn out on this story and I actually finish it. I have a basic outline worked out for a Ben Ten story, a Loud House story, a RWBY story, and a Danny Phantom story so choose which one you would rather see first in the comments if you want to. Keeping in mind that I'll eventually get to all of them, unless I die, you're just helping me decide which to start writing first. Bit of a warning though, the Loud House story covers concepts such as incest and suicide, but it's not ultimately tragic and it doesn't frame incest as inherently a bad thing. Mostly because I don't actually believe it's inherently a bad thing. Whether it's good or bad is really a case by case thing. It could also count as a harem story now that I think of it… I mean I don't really know how it's going to end yet, but there are various reasons I wouldn't label it as a harem story necessarily. Just thought I would warn you.

I have a basic outline for my eventual Harry Potter fan fiction as well, but to do this Naruto story justice it kind of needs to be epic in length. To do my Harry Potter story justice, it also needs to be epic in length, and I don't think I can do two epic length stories at the same time. Actually never mind, All my stories will need to be kind of long to be done right. I just don't want to do a Harry Potter story and a Naruto story at the same time.

It was hard for me to write about Sasukes training during the month between the second and third test of the exams, because he doesn't really have a special skill that sets him apart from the other two, he's just kind of a jack of all trades. When writing about a specific skill it's easier for me to indicate progress in the characters skills because I can describe in detail how much better they are at a specific thing than they were before, and because it would be dumb to practice one thing to the exclusion of everything else, it's a safe bet that the character has improved in other places as well. Assuming I don't make a point about how they don't practice anything else, like I did with Sakura. With a character like Sasuke though, who doesn't have a specific skill I can focus on, I had to think up different ways to use everything he has access to.

If you ever wonder why I seem to ignore specific details, it's because I tend to want a single chapter to be focused on only a few things at once. Like in this one I mostly ignored Jiraiyas perversion, except as a way for Kakashi to find him. It's not that I'm totally ignoring it, it's just not the focus of this chapter.


	22. Tenten Is Freaking Awesome

So I occurs to me that I don't know if I ever explained the discrepancy between the bonkers reality warping of the first chapter and the relatively grounded nature of later chapters. That's because the first chapter was basically intended to be a one shot parody of that scene common in a lot of Naruto fan fictions where an angry mob appears apropos of nothing. It's such a stupid and generic scene that I just wanted to point that out. When I decided to continue the piece I started working towards a more realistic tone, but I wasn't just going to not explain the first chapter. So the idea came about that Jinchurikis inherit the negative karma of their biju, and with enough negative karma reality itself starts bending to mess with you. It really makes the first chapter kind of depressing in retrospect. Anyway, from now on, reality warpingly bad things will only happen if I can reasonably justify it. Basically I'll try to earn it before I use it. On a side note, I started writing another story in the Loud House fandom. If You're interested in the Loud House and you don't mind taboo subject matters, go check it out.

! #$%^$#$%^&*(*&^%$%^&*(*&*()()_)(*(^%^%$#$%^&*((^$#%&()%# #%&())%#^#&&)^##^(*

"Will all combatants but Uchiha Sasuke and Temari of Sunagakure please make their way to the observation booth? The first match is about to begin." Genma announced, directing the other genins attention to a small balconied room someway up the wall of the arena.

The other genin filed up to the booth, either walking up the wall and jumping over the railing or walking through the ground floor doors and making their way through the corridors until they were over looking the arena from the balcony. Sasuke and Temari stood across from each other while Genma briefly went over the rules of the fight again.

"One, keep the fight to the arena. If you leave you're disqualified. Two, you lose if you die, lose consciousness, or forfeit. Three once I've called the match you are not to continue fighting, if you do you're disqualified. Four, don't attack the audience. These are the only rules." Genma explained. "Start on my signal."

The senbon sucking proctor brought his hand down between them in a sign to start the match and jumped back towards the edges of the arena, far enough to be out of the way but close enough to interfere if things got out of hand.

The genin burst into action. Sasuke, his Sharingan blazing to life closed the distance between them, forcing the Suna genin to take the object off her back and swing it like a club at his main body. Sasuke dodged back and went through a set of hand seals. His hands sparked the briefest instant before he drew out handfuls of shuriken and let them loose at his opponent. The Suna genin held her makeshift club in front of herself to block the bladed stars. This was a mistake. There was a flash of electricity and the Uchiha survivor was on his opponent as her muscles locked and she let out a strangled breath. The Uchiha grabbed the top of her club, pushed it down into the dirt, and flipped over it. Kicking out at her, catching her in the chest and further knocking the wind out of her as he simultaneously ripped the club out of her hand and threw it back the way he came.

Temari could do nothing as her weapon was torn from her hands, and her breath was even further robbed from her when the Uchiha grasped her shoulders and sent a knee into her solar plexus. She dropped to the ground, choking and retching on nothing as she struggled to draw in a breath. Since when did Uchiha use electric jutsu? Temari though they used fire all day, all the time. This fight should have been easy to win. She would have just kept her distance and sent any fire jutsu he used back his way. Well there was nothing for it now. She resigned herself to defeat here where it didn't matter, but she would be ready for him the next time if it came down to a fight between them. She felt, more than saw, the Uchiha circle around behind her and crouch down. She was briefly confused until she felt the bite of a kunai against her throat.

"Proctor, I forfeit." Temari managed between gasping breaths.

The audience roared when Genma called the match and Temari struggled to her feet as Sasuke made his way back to the competitors booth. Temari took inhaled and exhaled deeply to stabilize her breathing and walked to her weapon, her breath coming easier with each step until she picked it up and made her own way back to the booth.

"Would Hyūga Hinata and Yamanaka Ino please come down?" Genma rhetorically asked.

Hinata turned and exited through the door to the hallways from the booth, while Ino vaulted over the railing and ran down the wall. She waited for Hinata to arrive, standing in the middle of the arena with Genma.

"Hey, Hinata." Ino greeted.

"Hello." The milky eyed girl responded softly.

"No hard feelings if I win right?"

Hinata smiled and nodded her agreement.

Genma gathered their attention and explained the rules. Then he signaled the start of the match.

Chakra pulsed from both girls, Ino unsealing her spear and the veins bulging around Hinatas eyes as her Byakugan activated. The Hyūga immediately noticed the glow of chakra in the two large bottles of water strapped to Inos hips. She moved to cross the space between them, but Ino jumped back. Bracing her spear over her shoulder, Ino sped through a short series of hand seals. She grasped the bottles and tossed them them towards Hinata who dodged away, not wanting to know what they would do. The bottles burst open and two identical Inos formed out of the water. Taking up their spears the two Ino clones approached the Hyūga heiress, standing on guard until the real Ino made her way over to create a united front against Hinata.

Hinata for her part was wary of fighting three opponents of unknown ability at once and retreated back into a guard position. As the assault of the Inos started Hinata noticed instantly that the two clones were noticeably slower and less skilled than the real one. This made things easier, but not easy. She was still fighting another skilled genin plus two duplicates, no matter how poor those duplicates were. Left Ino thrust her spear forward. Hinata brushed it to the side. Right Ino swept at her legs. Hinata jumped back, grabbing Left Inos spear shaft as she went and dragging left Ino after her. Real Ino moved in behind her off balance copy, spinning the spear in her hand so the blunt side was facing forwards. The white eyed heiress pulled the copy towards her and slipped into her guard, letting a palm strike fly at her. The Ino copy lost cohesion before she made contact. Before the water even started to fall, it splashed in all directions and the blunt end of the real Inos spear stamped into Hinatas forehead.

Hinata stumbled back, recovered, and created more distance. Ino reformed her water copy. Details where less sharp in her mind and she felt a slight fog descend, Hinata thought she might have a slight concussion from that last blow. She shook her head to clear it and readied herself once more. The Inos circled around surrounding her. Hinata didn't wait for them to attack this time. She knew which ones were fake and which one was real. She dashed back to the Ino to the right and behind her, twirling around the Inos defensive thrust, she splashed the fake girl back into water with a chakra imbued palm strike to the chest. She could already see the other two Inos rushing towards her to take advantage of her distraction. Spinning on the balls of her feet she faced them. Right Ino stabs towards her stomach. Hinata shifted to the side and struck out with a palm towards her face. Left Ino blocked the palm strike with her spear shaft. Shoving Hinata back, left Ino whirled the spear around and sliced at her opponent. Hinata ducked, and took a took a quick step forward, striking out with a two finger thrust. Bringing it close to her body after the slice Ino rotated her spear, deflecting the attack to the side. Right Ino imposed herself in front of left Ino, driving her spear forward to impale Hinata, as left Ino shifted behind right Ino and retreated back running through a set of hand seals. Hinata was left to fight front Ino, weary of a surprise attack from behind Ino, unwilling to fall for the same trick twice. Behind Ino suddenly rushed forward, eating the distance between her, front Ino, and Hinata quickly. Hinata dashed back in alarm. Front Ino jumped after, coming down on her with an over head spear plunge. The Hyūga princess punished this mistake, deflecting the spear to her side and moving propelling her palm up at the airborne Ino. She lost cohesion before she made contact and Hinatas eyes widened in alarm, before water splashed into them and she closed them reflexively, chakra charged water blocking her dojutsu while her eyelids blocked her regular vision.

"Rapid Mind Body Transfer Jutsu."

"What?" Was Hinatas last thought before everything went blank.

The crowd waited with baited breath as the Yamanaka girl slumped over and lay on the ground. Her water copies were all gone and the Hyūga was the only one still standing, why hadn't the fight been called yet?

Hinata raised her hand into the air.

"Proctor, I forfeit." She called with an uncharacteristically strong tone of voice.

Genma peered at her for a second, "Winner by forfeit, Yamanaka Ino."

Hinata sagged, then jumped back into alertness and looked around wildly, while Ino climbed to her feet.

Making her way over Ino held her hand out. "Good match"

Hinata startled slightly, but took the hand in her own, squeezing gently and letting go. She didn't know what happened, but she supposed she must have lost. The general attitude of the audience wasn't helping her figure out what happened, most of them seemed just as confused as her. She mentally shrugged and made her way back up the competitors booth.

"Will Inuzuka Kiba and Hyūga Negi please come down and stand in front of me?" Genma called.

"Heh, you should just give up now. I gotta stomp a mud hole in Uzumakis ass, you're just in the way." The dog ninja taunted.

Neji looked thoroughly unimpressed. Shifting into a ready stance, he activated his Byakugan before the fight even started, determined to be ready for anything the Inuzuka might throw at him. Fated to win though he may be, it would be embarrassing if the brash ninja managed to get the drop on him before Neji could teach him his place.

The proctor signaled the start of the match and Kiba responded immediately. He tossed a soldier pill to Akamaru, whose fur shifted to a dark shade of red.

"Man Beast Clone!" Suddenly there were two Kibas, "Beast mimicry" The Kibas dropped to all fours and crossed the space between them and Neji like a shot. One of them circling around behind.

Standing still Neji waited. Kiba surprised him though.

"Gatsuga!" The dog ninja howled. Both he and Akamaru spinning into whirlwinds of claws and fury. Wind buffeting off Neji and the ground, as the Inuzuka and his dog sought to end the fight as fast as possible. Being on the same team as a Hyūga, Kiba knew close combat was a bad idea, but he didn't have any ranged options, so he hoped that going all out from the start would net him the win.

"Kaiten!" The two whirling drills of ninja and dog suddenly crashed and rebound off a shell of swirling chakra.

In the audience Neji could see his uncles eyes widen, but he didn't care at the moment.

Kiba crashed to the ground, spilling and digging a furrow as he tumbled, before regaining his feet and standing. Looking up.

Neji was right in front of him.

"Eight Trigrams, Sixty-four Palms!"

Kiba tried to dodge the first two but he didn't have good enough footing to do it properly. He felt two strikes, then two more, then four more, eight more, sixteen more, thirty-two more. His body making aborted motions and twitches as the blows thundered into him, one after the other. If Neji hadn't been there it would have almost looked like he was having a seizure, and feeling as numb and heavy as he did, Kiba would have believed it. He dropped and lay still. The last thing he saw before his sight faded was Neji whipping around to strike down Akamaru, whose transformation failed as he hit the ground as well.

Neji breathed in and out, calming himself as a hush fell over the crowd, at the quick, decisive, and brutal victory.

"Winner by knock out, Neji Hyūga." The senbon chewing proctor announced. "Can someone please carry Inuzuka Kiba to the infirmary?"

A pair of chunin jumped down to carry Kiba and his dog out of the arena as Neji calmly walked back to the competitors booth. He would have to explain his knowledge of the main house secret taijutsu techniques later, but he chose not to think about that until the exams were over. He would deal with things as they came.

"Tenten of Konoha and Garra of Suna please come down." The Proctor called.

Leaving the competitors booth at the same time, Tenten made it to the arena first, as Garra was walking quite slowly.

Once they were both in the middle of the arena Genma explained the rules for their benefit, before throwing his hand down to signal the matches start and jumping away to the edges of the fighting area.

Jumping back Tenten wearily armed herself with a few shuriken. Hurling them at the Suna nin, she wasn't going to take any chances. She didn't get to see much of his capabilities in the short match between him and the Aburame, but she saw enough to get that sand was his main form of attack and defense. Without understanding the limits of his technique better, she wasn't willing to get any closer than she absolutely had to. Before the shuriken were even half way, the cork from the gourd on the red heads back popped off and a wave of sand spilled out to catch the stars in the air. More sand poured out, forming a small circle around the sand user, shuriken dropping with it.

Tossing out a few more shuriken and kunai, netted a similar result. The sand from the small circle surrounding him, simply rising up to catch the weapons and dropping back to the ground, all the while Garra remained rooted to his starting position, his arms crossed over his chest, as if he had nothing to fear from anything. That wasn't a healthy habit, though Tenten wasn't going to tell him that. She would simply have to teach him that lesson through example. If he wasn't smart enough to figure it out afterwards, that was his problem. All that in mind, she still wasn't ready to attack quite yet. Unsealing a fuuma shuriken she slammed it into the ground beside her and Ran through the hand seals for the replacement jutsu, she dashed ever constricting loops around the sand users spot, trying to see just how close she could get before he attacked her.

Around and around she went. Twenty meters. Eighteen meters. Sixteen meters. Fourteen meters. Twelve meters. Ten meters. Eight meters. The sand lashed out suddenly at seven meters and attempted to catch her. Tenten flipped back. Landing, she darted backwards and from side to side as the sand continued to chase her. It chased her past the twelve meter mark, and only stopped at fifteen meters. She took note of the distance, but didn't discount the possibility that his range could be larger. This was a good start. She still needed to do some tests though. While she now had a rough idea of distance limits for his sand, she needed more information about his technique before she really started in on her attack. Normally she wouldn't be able to plan this way in combat, but the Suna genin seamed content to let her be for the moment. It wasn't something she could say she was used to, but she wasn't going to waste the opportunity.

Pulling a kunai from her side pouch, she wrapped an explosive note around the handle and brought her arm forward in a whipping motion, sending the deadly knife toward the red head. The sand rushed ahead to intercept the knife a distance from its user, letting it detonate at a safe length away from the knifes intended target, retreating back to join the circle again with its task complete. This was different from how it normally acted, and it told Tenten that this fight wouldn't be as easy as peppering him with bombs across a gap.

She had an idea though. Pulling out a small, thin scroll, one of several in that pouch, the bun haired genin tied it to a kunai and sent it flying at her opponent. Just as before, the knife was caught some distance outside the main sand circle and enveloped. Unlike before, the kunai didn't blow up. Instead the sand cocoon became drenched and slapped to the ground, a pool of water forming around it. Someone less observant would never be able to tell, but Tenten saw Garras eyes widen in surprise. The soggy pile sluggishly slunk along the ground, making it's way back to it's wielder. The effort was visible in Garras expression, he uncrossed his arms and held one out to direct his sand. A tendril coming out, wrapping around and into the pile, spreading the liquid out further. The effected sand formed a ring in the air and started to spin, slowly at first but faster and faster as the sand got drier.

Garras stance was less relaxed now. he was no longer content to wait. The gourd on his back broke down into more sand, and added to the circle. The ground burst unable to hold together in the face of a wave of sand forcing its way through the thinest of cracks.

Tenten leaped back alarmed. She understood now. The Suna genin wasn't simply waiting, he was grinding the stone beneath his feat into sand this whole time. Presumably waiting until there was so much she couldn't possibly escape. She simply forced him to show his hand early with her little water trick. This fight wouldn't be as easy as she initially thought.

Licking her lips, she brushed a hand against her secret weapon for reassurance. Nodding her hesitation away, she braced herself for the continuing battle.

Not a moment too soon. She ducked as the sand lashed over her head, moving as if to decapitate her.

Dodge to the side from her ducked position to avoid another wave of sand. Roll to her feet. Twist around a sand spear. Flip over its retreating attempt to ensnare her. Run backwards. throw out a brace of shuriken. They curve shaving through the air to be caught in a thicker sand circle before they could hit. A responding wall of sand shuriken bore down on her. Hitting, she was engulfed in smoke and the fuuma shuriken, from before, fell in her place. A wall rose behind Garra, enclosing a kunai and absorbing the following eruption of force and fire. Turning Garra eyed his enemy.

Tenten, her eyes wide, could only start dodging again. She had noticed something over the course of the fight though. Sidestep. The new sand was a little slower than his original sand. This new information though. Roll. Jump. Twist over. It told her that Garra either had much better senses than she first thought, or his defenses happened without conscious thought on his part. Bolt back. To the left. To the right. Leap. Either way she wouldn't be getting him in the back with a surprise attack. Breath. She had an idea though. She saw how slow water made his sand, and had nine more of those water scrolls. Some might say tha-OH SHIT!- Run! Run right now! Run up the arena wall. Good the sand stopped at the bottom. Some might say ten water scrolls was a bit excessive, but Tenten always believed in being over prepared. Better to have and not need than need and not have after all, and now she was glad to have.

Pulling the nine scrolls out, Tenten untied the strings holding them closed, and attached a ninja wire connected shuriken to each one. Readying her aim, she made sure she had a solid hold on the ends of each line of wire. Looking down Tenten could see Garra glaring at her balefully. Loosing shuriken in a cone spread, the scrolls unfurled. The ends snapping through the air further and further from the stars leading them. The shuriken stopping dead when the wires had no more length to give. The red head looked up at the spread of unrolled paper hanging over him like an executioners axe, even as it drifted so gently.

Two things happened at almost the same time. One, all the sand spread throughout the arena rushed back in to surround and protect him. Two, in a spark of energy the scrolls loosed a torrential downpour. A waterfall of liquid crashed down onto the hapless genin, the whole of the sand collapsing under the combined weight of itself and the liquid suffusing it.

The Murderous Suna genin struggled out of a pile, the sand sloughing off him. He shot his adversary a look that promised death.

Imparting him with a slight smirk the bun haired genin readied a set of five note wrapped kunai. Three in one and and two in the other. She launched four in a spread around her adversary, not even trying to hit him, sniping the last at the dead center of his body.

The sand sluggishly rose to catch it. It didn't matter. The air was filled with the smell of ozone and crackling flashes of electricity lit up the area, momentarily blinding any who looked directly at it.

"AAAAHAHAIAIAIAGHRKLAUOAAAAAA!" Garras inhuman scream filled the air. He who had never been hurt before, was hurt. It was more than a bruise or a cut. This was a deep pain, an attack on his very ability to feel pain. An attack on his very ability to feel anything. It felt like his bones were melting. Garra could feel his teeth cracking and his throat ripping from the force of the air expelled from his lungs.

A hush fell over the audience as they waited for whatever was going to happen next.

Garra convulsed and fell, barely holding onto consciousness.

Genma was about to move to check the Suna genins vitals when a commotion in the stands drew his attention. Feathers rained from the sky and the civilians in the stands started to fall asleep. The Kage viewing booth exploded, and a field of chakra sprang up on the roof a moment later. Sand and Sound ninja appeared from everywhere and nowhere and began attacking, and while everyone was distracted, Garras siblings jumped into the arena and carried him off into the forrest surrounding the village.

"What's happening?!" Tenten shouted, landing next to the proctor.

"We're under attack!" He yelled back. "Meet up with the other Konoha genin in the competitors booth and take whoever's still able to fight after the Suna team!"

Tenten turned to make her way to the competitors booth as Genma dashed away to help defend the sleeping civilians.

IDON'TREALLYHAVEANYTHINGTOSAYHERESO…AFHALJDFJAFJDFHAJFLFALFKHFLKAF

The group Tenten brought with her was ultimately comprised of her teammate Neji, all of team seven, and Shikamaru Nara. Following the trail of the Suna genin was easy. They weren't even trying to be subtle in their passing, almost as if they didn't care who followed them, or like it didn't matter.

Their lonely chase didn't stay lonely for long though.

"There's a group of shinobi following us." Neji remarked somewhat severely.

"How many, and can you tell what village they're from?" Tenten asked.

"There are ten of them, they're from Hidden Sound." He answered, "They do not seem to be very strong."

They didn't stop, but Tenten went quiet with thought.

"I'll stall them." Shikamaru volunteered. "It would be bad if they caught up with us when we caught up with the Suna genin. They could attack us from both sides. It's best if one of us stops those chasing us now."

"Are you sure you're up to fighting them though?" Tenten queried, worried over one of the members of her temporary squad.

"I don't need to fight them. I just need to stall them long enough for you guys to finish off the Suna team. If things start to go bad, I'll just run." He reasoned.

"Wouldn't it make more sense if we all just stopped and fought them and continued chasing the Suna team after we won?" Naruto asked.

"No. We don't know why Genma told us to go after the Suna genin, but if they were just escaping he would have told us to focus on escorting the civilians to shelters. Our superiors must know that the Suna genin are part of something important. I'll stall the shinobi chasing us, and you stop the Suna team before it's too late." The Nara explained.

The rest of the team, minus Neji, shared worried glances, before nodding to him affirmation and continuing after their quarry. Shikamaru quickly finding a place to wait for the approaching shinobi amongst the trees.

As the sounds of his team disappeared into the background noise of the wilderness around him, Shikamaru sighed. He was rested and ready, but he really didn't want to do this.

"Kami, Why couldn't I have been a librarian or something." he thought, sighing. He just had to follow in the footsteps of his father didn't he? And look where it got him. He was sitting in a tree waiting to intercept ten, TEN, enemy ninja and stall them long enough for his teammates to finish up the mission given to them by their chunin exam proctor, while a full scale invasion was taking place on his village, perpetrated by two other villages.

He let out a billowing breath, his tension going with it. It wasn't worth getting worked up over this.

A bird chirped its mating call somewhere above him. The sky was blue and the clouds white and fluffy. This would be a really good day for cloud watching. He set his head back against the trunk of the tree, inhaled through his nose, and exhaled through his mouth.

Closing his eyes, he could just about hear the sounds of the Sound shinobi approaching. They weren't trying to hide their presence, and the amount of noise they made said something about their skill level, even taking that into account. Sakura made less noise when running. Clearly this was a case of quantity over quality. Well sometimes quantity was quality, but this wasn't one of those cases. Cycling through the hand signs for the illusionary clone jutsu, he sent his incorporeal doppelgänger to sit at the edge of a small clearing of trees in the middle of the path the enemy shinobi would travel through. No need to put himself in real danger. He had it lean back against a tree and feign sleep.

A moment later nine shinobi landed in the clearing and approached his sleeping clone. At least they had the presence of mind to keep a guy back to watch for danger. It wouldn't save them in this case. He had them ensnared in his shadow before they even noticed anything was wrong. Their first clue was when all of them made a motion as if pulling a kunai out of a nonexistent pouch and wrapping something around the handle, involuntarily and in tandem. Their second clue was when moments after making a throwing motion, a explosive note wrapped kunai landed in the center of their formation.

"FU-" One of them got out, before the rest of his curse was drowned out by the sound of an explosion. Chunks of dirt and gore rained down on the surrounding trees and dust settled to the ground.

The last shinobi turned tail and ran from the scene as quickly as he could. Shikamaru could hear his frantic steps as he got further away. Closing his eyes he breathed out and made a quick decision to chase down and eliminate the fleeing ninja. It would be so easy to let him escape, but if he did, the remaining shinobi could get word back to his superior that his team was killed. Even if he didn't tell anyone, he could still do damage in the village. Opening his eyes, he took another breath and let it out as he launched himself from his position, to follow the fleeing shinobi. Leaping from tree to tree, branch to branch, he made a token effort to conceal his approach from his prey. Given the lack of skill demonstrated in the Sound shinobi, his prey probably wouldn't have noticed him coming anyway, but that was no reason to get careless. Spotting the Sound ninja ahead of him, Shikamaru jumped higher and began to jump from tree top to tree top. It wasn't as stealthy as jumping from branch to branch, but it also meant that the enemy shinobi wouldn't see him if they looked back. Shikamaru stayed on him, getting ready for the kill. On the next jump, Shikamaru leaped in an arc that ended with him slamming down onto the back of the bolting Sound shinobi. Interrupting the shinobis own jump and sending him plummeting down to the ground, face first, with Shikamaru crouched on his spine. As the dust settled from the impact, the Nara slipped a kunai from his pouch and rammed the point through the back of his victims neck, severing his spine, the tip digging into the dirt. He pulled the bloodied knife from his victims neck and wiped it off on their shirt. Slipping the kunai back into his pouch, he stood from the dead man and turned back the way he came. Maybe if he was fast he could catch up with them again.

IFYOU'RECOMINGFROMMYLOUDHOUSESTORYTOTHISONE,YOU'LLNOTICETHATI

The Group continued for a while without the Nara. They kept on the trail of the Sand genin, all the while wondering what was so important about them that a team was sent after them specifically. The pursuing Konoha genin leapt through the foliage in silence.

"One of them has broken from the other two. She's coming back our way. I can only assume she's coming to stall us, so the other two have time to do whatever it is they're trying to do." Neji spoke for the first time in a while. His white eyes suddenly widened, "Scatter!"

As everyone dodged in every direction away from the center of their formation, a blast of wind swept through the trees, ripping bark off and cutting deep lacerations in the trunks. They all came to a stop, each of them sticking to different trees outside the zone of devastation. Ahead of them the female Sand genin, Temari, appeared on a tree in their path. She looked determined to prevent them from progressing further. The two sides gazed across at each other until Sasuke stepped forward.

"You guys continue ahead. Stop the other two before they can do whatever it is they're trying to do, and I'll fight her." He spoke confidently.

"Tenten hesitated, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I've fought her before, she wasn't that hard. I'll catch up with you all in a few minutes." He replied.

Though worried, She ultimately decided to let him fight alone. Shikamaru was probably finished with the Sound shinobi by now, and if he was following the same path they were, he would run across Sasukes fight with the Sand genin soon enough.

"Alright." She nodded to him, signaling the rest of her gathered team to regroup around her.

"Be careful Sasuke-kun." Ino cautioned, worriedly.

Sasuke went on the attack immediately, to give the rest of the team time to dash passed the fan user. She was forced to focus her attention on him rather than keeping everyone at bay with wide spread wind attacks.

He tried throwing electric touch imbued shuriken again, just to see if it would work. It didn't, but he didn't expect it to. You would have to be an incredibly slow learner to fall for that trick the same way a second time.

Dodging to the side of the shuriken, Temari unleashed another violent whirlwind in her opponents general direction, forcing him to swing around and hide behind a tree. The force cracked the trunk, but left him unscathed. The last time he'd fought her, he was able to finish the fight before she could get off a single jutsu. This time, he wasn't so lucky. She was prepared for him. It was aggravating, but nothing he couldn't deal with. Of course openly attacking her would be stupid, but if he could sneak close enough, he could kill her with a surprise attack and finish the fight in time to catch up and finish the mission. That in mind, as winds buffeted the tree again and his hair whipped wildly, he slipped off his branch and slid down the trunk until he reached the forrest floor. Going through the hand signs for the Illusionary clone jutsu, he sent it dashing away from his position. A blade of wind immediately sought it out and sliced it in half, cutting a trench into the ground behind it. It served its purpose though. It distracted her long enough for him to dash from cover. He unleashed a brace of shuriken her way, before taking shelter behind another tree. He didn't see what happened, but there wasn't a sound of metal piercing flesh, so he was reasonably sure he didn't hit her. A assumption that was reinforced, when wind blew passed on either side of the trunk. Dust clouded the air, and he needed to bring the neck of his shirt over his mouth to avoid coughing. Running through the signs for the illusionary clone jutsu again, he sent another out to be instantly cut down. Sending out another, another, and another as each one was cut down by a solitary blade of wind. He kept at it and soon, she stopped sending blades out. He left a clone in his place and sprinted away aimlessly, so as not to draw any more attention than one of his clones. Coming to a stop behind another tree a ways away from her, he pulled a kunai from his pouch and used the reflective surface as a mirror to peer around the trunk. She'd opened her fan wider. There were now two purple dots showing on the surface instead of just one. She was still looking at the tree he'd left behind. Swinging her fan around, Sasuke was suddenly glad he wasn't there anymore because the wind was much stronger than before. A blade of wind sliced right through the trunk and into the ground, bisecting his illusionary clone.

Alright, he would have to be much more careful now. He couldn't let her know where he was anymore, because he could no longer rely of the trees for cover. She was now looking around for his new hiding spot, unwilling to waste chakra and just launch wind blades in every direction, she was trying to find him. Using the reflective surface of the kunai, he waited until she was turned away from him and slid around the tree, dashing as quietly as he could to a tree that was closer to her. By now she existed in a newly created clearing, so he wouldn't be able to sneak so close as to be right next to her by the time he attacked, but he could get within ten feet. What was that old rule? The twenty-one foot rule. It said a knife wielder could cross twenty-one feet before a bowman could aim and shoot. Sasuke was willing to bet that worked with jutsu too. Waiting for her to turn again, he slunk closer. Coming to a stop at the base of the tree closest to her. He watched until she was facing away from him, then going through the signs for the Electric touch jutsu, he applied it to his kunai and slid around the trunk to approach her.

The lightning sparked audibly. His eyes widened. She leapt away, locking her fan fully open, with three purple dots showing. Sasuke cursed and pushing off the ground to rush her down. She spun the fan around her body, and Sasuke could see a large amount to chakra gathering around her fan with his Sharingan.

He didn't reach her in time, and he knew he was screwed the moment the edge of the fan passed in front of him and he felt the small amount of wind the fan created naturally from being swung. There was a pause. Pain exploded across his body. He was picked up by the force, and sent flying backwards like a piece of paper caught in a strong breeze. His body rag dolled as the pressure ripped his control over himself away and he was smashed through several trees. He tumbled across the ground and came to a stop against a tree trunk some distance away. Slumped, as he wasn't able to move under his own power any longer, blood dribbled down his chin and stained his shirt. The back of his head felt damp. He could barely open his eyes and vision was fading in and out, but he could hear the crunch of dirt and grass beneath sandals when Temari landed in front of him. There was a momentary pause, during which Sasuke was sure he was about to die. Then she turned and jumped away.

She was leaving? That… No. How, how dare she dismiss him as if he wasn't worth her consideration.

"She thinks you're weak." He, he wasn't weak!

His body wouldn't listen to him. Everything hurt and his body wouldn't do as he wanted it to.

"You Are weak." No. NO. NO! HE WOULDN'T BE BEATEN LIKE THIS!

"You need more power." He had more power. It was just locked away. The seal though. The seal was based on his own willpower. So if he just stopped blocking it… The mark on the base of his neck thrummed with power. A feeling of warmth spread throughout his body. His body became lighter. Looking down at his exposed skin, he could see black tattooed chains snaking around him. Chakra exploded off his body, blue with motes of purple. The purple spots grew larger, poisoning the blue, until there was nothing but purple. He felt good though. Better than ever. He lifted himself to his feet and took a few unsteady steps forward. His gate becoming increasingly more steady with each step. He stood and allowed himself a small chuckle that went out of control, as he soon found himself laughing hysterically. THIS WAS AMAZING! HA HA HA HA HA!

Then the chakra, that had been rising in a spinning double helix of power, dissipated. His next laugh turned into a bloody hack and he fell to his knees and face first to the floor. As much of a boost in power as the curse seal was, it didn't heal him, and you could only use pure power as a crutch for so long before your injuries caught up with you.

As his consciousness faded and his eyes finally fluttered closed, he saw a pair of blue sandals land in front of him.

"Troublesome…" Someone sighed.

ICAN' ,ILIKEITWAYMORE.

The group continued ahead without Sasuke or Shikamaru. They wished them luck, but hoped they wouldn't need it. They jumped from branch to branch in silence.

"Another of them has broken off." Neji announced suddenly, "Only the sand user is continuing forward now."

"So, he's the one we have to stop right?" Naruto asked. "I mean if the other two broke off to stop us, then they must not need to be there for whatever it is they're trying to do."

"That's a reasonable assumption." Tenten remarked. "Can you tell us anything about the one who's coming to face us?"

Neji was silent for a moment.

"The wrapped bundle on his back looks like a puppet of some kind." He observed. "It has compartments for different poisons and weapons. He must have some method of controlling it."

Tenten contemplated that for a second.

"Given what you know of all our abilities, who do you think would have the best chance against him?" She requested his insight.

"Me." Neji answered promptly. "You and Uzumaki could likely finish the fight quickly, but you're not immune to surprise attacks. I can see through the puppet and tell what attacks he's going to use, before he uses them."

"Okay. Neji, be safe. We're counting on you to hold him off until we complete our mission."

"Understood." With that said, Neji picked up his pace and pulled ahead of the rest of the squad, while they drifted to the side, so as to pass the inevitable fight with room to spare.

"Shit." The puppet user cursed upon seeing who his opponent was, "So much for hiding."

Neji came to a stop some distance away. The two glared at each other briefly. The moment was broken when the puppets mouth opened and a barrage of senbon machine gunned out. Neji shifted to the side to dodge and dropped to the forrest floor below, when the stream didn't stop. He sprinted across the distance between them and leapt up the tree they were on, only for Kankuro to jump away, taking his puppet with him.

"I know who you are. You think I'm going to stay still and let you win?" The Sand shinobi quizzed, "Hyūga. You can see chakra and you use chakra directly in your taijutsu style to close peoples tenketsu. Excuse me if I make sure you can't do anything to me or Karasu."

Leaping across the gap between them, Neji attempted the close the distance, only for Kankuro to keep true to his words. He hopped back rapidly over many branches, peppering the Hyūgas position with senbon. Things went this way for the next several minutes of aborted exchanges, before Neji deigned to speak to the Sand ninja.

"You're crippling your ability to fight me by staying at a distance." Of course, Neji didn't think Kankuro would have had a chance either way, but this was getting annoying.

"Yeah, yeah. That's the thing. I don't need to beat you. I just need to stall you until my sister comes to help, or Garra murders your little team. I only need to be enough of a threat that you can't ignore me until then."

That was aggravating. As much as Neji hated relying on others, it looked like he would need to wait until the Uchiha caught up to help him. Otherwise Neji would be here until the invasion was beaten back. Still though, he would still fight. If he didn't do anything, he would be inviting defeat upon himself, so he needed to keep up the pressure. Even if for no other reason that to keep his opponent from making plans. He was abruptly forced to abandon his position as a cloud, of what he took to be poison, billowed from the puppets mouth. He fell backwards from his branch and fell to the forrest floor, while the poison gathered at his previous position. He dashed to the side, dodging several kunai that riddled the ground behind him. Coming to a stop, he glowered at the Sand shinobi.

Their stalemate was ended when Neji, his eyes widening, turned into a spin. Chakra became visible around him, twisting into a dome, just as a whirlwind swept over him. Great rends appeared in the ground and splashed off his defense. The trees groaned in protest, their trunks bending in ways they were never meant to bend. The wind storm ended just as the dome of swirling chakra dropped, and Neji was left facing two opponents when Temari dropped onto a branch near her brother.

"The Uchiha lost." The Hyūga observed cooly. This was less than ideal. In any other situation he might have made a tactical retreat, but he couldn't afford to in this case. If he retreated, it would lead to the Sand siblings being free to back up the sand user. That was unacceptable. He lowered himself into a ready stance.

"Not going to give up huh?" The puppet user asked, "I suppose there's something admirable about that. Well we're not going to go easy on you."

The puppet user and the fan user glanced at each other, making eye contact for just a moment. Temari snapped her fan into its fully open position, held it with both hands, and braced herself. Seeing a massive build up of chakra, Neji prepared to perform another Kaiten. Twisting a sphere of defensive chakra into existence around him just as the wind him, he couldn't see through the barrier. It was one of the few weaknesses to the Hyūgas ultimate defense. He couldn't see through the barrier, so what he couldn't see was Kankuro emptying a few of his puppets poisons tanks into the jutsu. The Kaiten may protect the Hyūga against Temaris wind attack, but it would do nothing against the lingering poison that would still exist after he stopped.

When he was finally forced to drop his defense, Neji went back to observing and waiting for his opponents next move. Against two competent opponents, both with long range specialties, there wasn't much Neji could do to win this fight. Superior as he was to his enemies, he recognized when he was at a disadvantage. At this point the best he could do was stall them until his teammates finished with their mission, or Konoha fought off the invasion and someone came around to even the odds. He took a deep breath. The air got caught in his throat and it ended in a small coughing fit that didn't end. If gradually got harder to breath as his coughing got more violent, and as it did, he realized that the fight was already over and he'd lost. Dropping to his hands and knees, he looked up to see the Sand ninja landing in front of him. His oxygen starved brain struggled to focus. He couldn't think and his vision was fading.

When the Hyūga collapsed, Kankuro waited a minute or two to make sure he wasn't going to wake up too soon, then he unsealed a syringe and injected it into a vein on Nejis neck. The antidote Kankuro just gave the Hyūga would ensure he didn't suffocate to death… Or at least, it would ensure he wouldn't suffocate to death because of the poison. They could have let him die, but they weren't in the business of executions… Unless someone paid them to be. They didn't tie his hands together because any ninja worth anything would be able to escape from that in under a second. Turning away from the unconscious genin, they leapt away after their brother.

IHAVETOGOTOTHEBATHROOM.

Leaving half of their team behind didn't sit well with the rest of the squad, but they didn't really have a choice in the this case. All they could do was hope they would win and believe they would be okay. The trail was getting fresher as they continued to gain ground on the last member of the Sand trio. They dashed through the trees, nobody saying anything, because conversation wouldn't help. It wouldn't ease their worries, and it wouldn't help their objective. Though, in an effort to keep her mind from wandering to the worst possibilities, she let it wander to her current remaining teammates. Two thirds of team seven. When she first met the two, when they came into her shop, she didn't think much of them. Sure, she didn't think they were weak, but they were wet behind the ears genin, she certainly didn't expect them to be as competent as they turned out to be. Tenten could see a lot of herself in them. Ino was a budding spear user. Spears weren't weapons that Tenten herself was a master of, but she knew enough about their handling to recognize that the Yamanaka was skilled with her weapon of choice. Naruto was skilled enough with seals that Tenten couldn't help but admire his ability. From what she'd seen, he wasn't as good with them as her, but she was an experienced genin and he'd only been a genin for six months.

She was forced to focus when they came upon the one they'd been pursuing this entire time. He was waiting on the forrest floor, standing on a patch of ground that was illuminated by a spotlight of sun, shining through the canopy. He didn't look healthy, but he didn't look dead on his feet either, which was actually pretty alarming. How fast did he heal that he was able to recover this much?

"You've come." He growled hoarsely. "I won't fall for your tricks again. We'll fight, and this time I'll kill you and prove my existence."

"That's not creepy at all." Ino muttered.

A sudden barrage of sand shots, forced them to scatter. The sand scoured bark off the trees when it missed, and gathered up into a snake like whip that shot after Tenten. Garra seemed to be sacrificing his defense in return for greater offense.

"Okay, I'm out of water scrolls, do either of you two have any ideas?" The bun haired kunoichi asked, slipping around a tree to dodge the sand whip, and jumping away when the sand snaked around to get her.

"No, sorry, I never refilled my water bottles. I would have sent a bunch of water clones at him otherwise!" Ino shouted after her.

"I have an idea that's kind of terrible!" Naruto replied.

"Well let's hear it. I'm not sure I can keep dodging forever!" Tenten screamed back

"Okay, there's three of us right? So how about I keep his attention at close range, and you guys pepper him from a distance!"

"You're right, that's a terrible idea!" Tenten yelled back, ducking under a lash from the sand and diving away, "How about an idea that won't get you killed!"

"Actually, as terrible as the idea sounds, and it sounds really terrible, it's not actually as bad as it seems. Naruto has a bloodline limit that let's him heal really fast. On the last C-rank mission we were on, he got caught in the blast radius of an explosive note and he was fine the next morning! If anyone can handle him at close range, it's Naruto!" Ino informed her.

Twisting out of the way of another sand shot, Tenten considered the information. That was a useful ability. She came to a split second decision. "Alright, we'll go with your plan, but if you suspect for even a second that you're getting overwhelmed, retreat and we'll come up with a different plan!" She watched Naruto switch directions midair, using his explosion shoes, to dodge a sand spear.

Naruto nodded and gave of thumbs up. The air exploded at his feet and he was sent hurtling at the sand user at break neck speeds. Whatever he was planning to do once he reached Garra, Tenten would never know because it was at that moment that sand surged up from the ground around Garras feet and wrapped around the sand users form. Naruto was obscured in the sand surge, and the next she saw of him, he was sent tearing back the way he came. He missed hitting a tree by inches. Looking back at their opponent, Tentens eyes widened. He looked like a mutated and partially melted demon. Sand was covering his form from his head to his waste and it formed a sick parody of a face where his should have been.

"AUUUGH!" Garra screamed, his voice cracking. "DIE!"

He forcefully launched from the ground and closed the distance between himself and Tenten in a second. A short time considering the space that previously existed between them, but more than enough for the female seal specialist to react. Bounding backwards, she reached for her secret weapon at her waist. She grabbed the handle of what looked like a sealing scroll on an axel, with a sword grip that extended into a pair of slingshot like arms, which connected to both sides of the axel. It looked like that, because that was exactly what it was. built on the same principle as her scroll shield, but with even more loaded into it, this was her infinity sword.

Garra went to follow her, but was stopped by Ino jumping at him with a overhead strike meant to spear him through the skull. Her attempt was blocked by as arm, with no visible damage to show for it, and Ino was batted away like a bug. Sent flying, it was all she could do to keep a grip on her spear. Caught by Naruto before she could hit a tree, he skidded back with her in his arms and set her to her feet, before rushing in himself. Coming in feet first, he used a midair explosion to abruptly jerk over Garras retaliatory swing, and the sand user caught an exploding double stomp to the face. stumbling backwards out of the smoke, Garra was forced to leap to another branch, lest he fall to the forrest floor below. Out of the corner of her eye, Tenten could see Ino wrapping an alarming number of explosive notes around the shaft of her spear. The resulting explosion from such a thing would be truly massive, but given the displayed durability of their opponent, a massive explosion might be just what they needed.

Tenten swept her arm at the sand demon, the scroll spinning, and the edge of her sword reeling out. It went from having no blade to having a thirty foot blade in a flash, just in time for the edge to bite into Garras sandy flesh and create a gash. Inos spear may not have been able to penetrate Garras defenses, but Tentens infinity sword had a paper thin edge. In terms of shear sharpness between the two weapons, there was no contest, the infinity sword won hands down. And thanks to the seals densely packed onto every available inch of scroll space, it had the strength of steel to back up the edge. Of course there were disadvantages to her infinity sword. For one, she could never use it to block fire attacks, because no matter how many seals she packed into it to increase durability and strength, at the end of the day it was still made of paper. That wasn't a problem at the moment though, so once she knew her sword could do him damage, she was free to wail on him with it. She extended and contracted the blade, reeling it in and out as needed, and while she wasn't doing a huge amount of damage with each attack, the attacks were starting to stack up. He wasn't going to go down without a fight though. Jumping away from her onslaught, he reached the floor and his sand body immediately began repairing itself as it drew sand from the ground. It gathered around one of his arms and a moment later a deformed sand hand was bearing down on her. An explosion to the side alerted Tenten to Narutos approach. He blurred into existence, crouching sideways on the sand arm and with another double explosion, sent it veering off course. Tenten could feel the wind from it, as it passed by her to the side. Sending a rush of chakra through her sword, she reinforced it as much as she could and slashed upwards. The edge meeting the sand arm and cutting into it. She didn't stop, even as Naruto exploded at Garra and kept him occupied with a rapid barrage of explosive kicks, she reinforced herself to give herself the power to do this and forced the blade to work through the sandy flesh until, with a final heave, it exited out the other side and half a disembodied sand arm crashed to the floor below her. Garra writhed in pain and missed a swiped at Naruto who ducked under just in time, rolled, and mule kicked Garra in the chest, the resulting explosion forcing him into another roll to bleed off the force.

"Naruto!" Ino shouted in warning, prompting him to sprint away as fast as he could.

With a practiced motion that included as much power as she could muster, Ino slung her spear forward. The entire surface of the shaft was covered in explosive notes. Naruto was dashing away at full speed, Ino sprang away as far as she could, Tenten leapt backwards in a powerful jump. Garras eyes widened as the spear imbedded in the ground just in front of him. He wrapped his arms around his main body for protection.

The world lit up like a second sun had just ignited. The roar of sound was deafening. A hush followed that made the world feel empty. Making their way back to ground zero, they were treated to the astonishing sight of Garra still on his feet. He was swaying, and if his sand flesh looked like it was melting before, now it was actually sloughing off, creating a pool of sand at his feet.

"You" He was breathing heavily and looked to be in a immense amount of pain. "You. I will not let you beat me. You're strong. Why? Why work together like you have?" He didn't pause for them to answer. "I'll kill you. I'll Kill You. I'LL KILL YOU. I'LL KILL YOU!"

There was a pause. The ground writhed and swirled at his feet, and rushed to the sky in an outpour of hundreds of tons of sand. It took shape as a much larger version of the sand demon he'd been before, but the upper half of his body was now protruding from the head. He had a crazed grin on his bloody face, and he brought his hands up in a hand sign. Then he slumped over. A change rippled through the construct.

"HA HA HA HA HA, I'M FREE!" It screamed, it's voice high pitched. "OH I'M GOING TO HAVE SO MUCH FUN! HA HA. WHAT'S THIS? A VILLAGE FOR ME TO CRUSH? THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!"

"Oh shit." Naruto said.

"What are we going to do now!?" Ino yelled.

"Uh, Uh, Shit! I don't know! His body is sticking out of its head, that's obviously his weak point, but I have no idea how we can get to it!" Tenten answered, a cold sweat of panic beading on her brow.

"I, Uh. I have another terrible idea." Naruto told them.

Before they could ask what it was, he jumped into the air. There was an explosion under one of his feet, propelling him higher, then the other. back and forth he exploded his shoes, sending him higher and higher into the air. To the amazed looks of Tenten and Ino, he looked like he was running on explosions. Turning towards the monster, he advanced on its head like a rocket. Turning towards him the monster, reached out with a hand, like one might swat a fly, and for a instant Tenten and Ino were sure he was going to die, but let himself drop and circled up around the arm. At head level the monster seemed to realize what he was trying to do. It's eyes widened and it stumbled back, while lifting a hand up to cover Garras body. Naruto was there first. Spinning in the air, he crashed into Garra feet first. The air rushed from the sand users lungs and he was snapped awake to the sight of Naruto crouched sideways on his unprotected chest.

"Hi." Naruto greeted.

Then Garras world literally exploded and Naruto was sent flying away from him. His mothers body fell apart because he could no longer muster the power or concentration to hold it together. His chest burned and his lungs hurt. His mothers body dissolved beneath him, and he resigned himself to his fate. This was where he died. He plummeted through the air, and landed on his sand. Pain shooting up his back from the impact. He looked at the sky and turned his head to look at his slayers as they approached for the final blow, but they stopped. This was confusing.

"Are you not going to kill me?" Garra asked them.

"Are you going to get up again?" Ino asked.

"No, You have beaten me. I no longer have the strength required to fight."

"Then no we're not." Tenten answered.

"Why?" Garra interrogated intently, "You kill me and prove you existence. That's how the world works."

"Prove our existence?" Narutos head tilted to the side.

"That's how I've lived. People have tried to kill me my entire life. Nobody acknowledged me. I found that I could prove my existence by removing them."

"What happens when you've killed everyone?" Naruto queried.

"What?" The red head returned.

"What happens when you've killed everyone and there's no one left to remember you? A plague or a natural disaster could do that, but nobody remembers them. If you kill everyone, who will be around to remember your existence?"

Garra took on a look of thought, and turned his head to stare at the sky again. Then Temari and Kankuro jumped into the clearing, and the three present members of the pursuit team felt a sudden and intense dread.

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	23. Notes for the last chapter

Incase it wasn't obvious what happened during that one part of the fight between Ino and Hinata. When Hinata tried to destroy the copy, Ino destroyed it herself so she could strike Hinata through the falling water, using the water as a means to hide her attack.

It may seem like I'm making Ino and Naruto master strategists on the same level as Shikamaru, but I'm not. A strategy is a plan of action you have for an entire fight or battle. What Naruto and Ino are doing isn't that. They're using tactics. Tactics are actions that you think up on the fly in order to get an advantage or turn things in your favor. A better example would be, Shikamaru would come up with a plan at the start of the fight and then spend the fight adjusting it and maneuvering himself and his opponent until he could implement it and end the fight. Naruto and Ino don't really go in with a detailed plan, they just fight until they think of something to do to get the advantage or notice a weakness and exploit it to end the fight.

As for the fight between Kiba and Neji. Come on, there's no way Kiba was going to win that. Cannon Naruto only won because he had the Kyuubi sealed inside him and cannon Naruto beat cannon Kiba without using the Kyuubi. I mean things are definitely different here, but this version Kiba is still weaker than this version of Naruto, and this version of Naruto would have a tough time fighting Neji. A tough time without the use of the Kyuubi, with the Kyuubi is would be a curb stomp battle in Narutos favor, but he wouldn't use the Kyuubi against a fellow leaf genin. No matter how much of a jerk they were to him.

I'm not even trying to make Kiba loose so much. I wish he would get matched up with people who're closer to his level, and I don't need to win, more often; but I'm using a random chance to decide who fights who. So it's just bad luck really.

It occurs to me that I should start making a character sheet for all the Konoha genin. I'll be easier to keep track of their developing abilities that way.

My thinking on fights has always been, why draw out a fight that you can end in an instant. I mean there are characters that would draw a fight out, like Orochimaru, because they're sadistic. However, most people tend to want a fight to be over as fast as possible. Therefor when characters fight, I don't make stuff happen to ensure the fight lasts for as long as possible. If the two combatants are of similar fighting ability, the fight often will last a while, but that's not because I'm drawing it out on purpose. The only time I would do that is if I needed something in particular to happen and that thing wouldn't happen if the fight ended too fast. Basically, unless I need the fight to be longer for whatever reason, if the fight WOULD end quickly, it WILL end quickly

I might have explained this before, I don't remember, but the reason I only describe specific things even if something I'm excluding would fit the theme of the chapter is because I only write about the things within a focus characters field of awareness. And if you haven't noticed, I'm trying not to focus on the adult characters too much, so even though Sarutobi was definitely aware that Orochimaru was in Konoha and he prepared for the possibility that he might have to fight his former student, team seven, eight, Gai, and ten would have no idea any of that was happening… Except that team seven had run across Orochimaru, but they don't even know it was him.

Naruto almost never uses the Kyuubis chakra in my story because I want it to be exactly what it should be, a trump card. Meaning, it's not something he wants to or will just start using because the fight is getting hard. He's wary about using it, because he doesn't know what effects it might have, so the only time he'll use the Kyuubis chakra is if the situation is absolutely hopeless otherwise. Like when Haku destroyed his team and Kakashi was caught in the water prison jutsu. He uses it then because he couldn't have won without it. If he CAN win without the Kyuubis chakra, he WILL win without the Kyuubis chakra.

I read through the last chapter, and I noticed some things. For one, that part where Sasuke is thinking about how he killed that one guy during the preliminaries. The thoughts he's supposedly having, are actually the cursed seal whispering at him. Those whisperings are supposed to be in size six font to indicate that they're just barely heard whisperings in the back of his head, but resized them for some reason. I guess I'll have to do curse seal whisperings in a completely different font style next time.

For Shikamarus encounter with the Sound Shinobi, I set the scene exactly as it was in canon, except that this version of Shikamaru acted more intelligently and doesn't care about killing people. In Canon Shikamaru was tired and actually sat against that tree while waiting for the shinobi to show up. He captured them in him shadow and just held them there until his sensei arrived and took care of the enemy ninja. Here he wasn't tired, he sent a clone to sit against the tree in his place, and instead of wasting chakra just holding them there, he blew them up with an explosive note.

If you're coming to this from my Loud House story, you'll note that I struggle with this more than I do with Splitting Hairs. This is because I didn't start this story with any kind of goal in mind, I'm just sort of meandering until I reach a point that feels like the end. With Splitting Hairs, I have a specific plot and progression in mind. With this… Not so much. Also the plot of canon sucks…

Writing the Sasuke vs Termari fight round two was dumb. I just only wanted to skip passed it and get to the fight of two thirds of team seven plus Tenten vs Garra. Of course, I couldn't do that. If I had, everyone would wonder what happened between Sasuke and Temari. Also just not telling you what happened, for no reason, would be bad writing.

I had the same problem while writing the Neji vs Kankuro fight. I like to think I handled them well, but that doesn't change the fact that I would have rather not written them. I originally planned for Neji to die during that encounter, but it just didn't happen. Such is life.

Does it strike anybody else that I'm not even trying and I'm still working with the themes of the show more skillfully than the show does. Seriously the anime and manga sucked. I don't know who wrote them, but I would bet on it being a counsel of twenty-three five year olds. I do like Naruto, but only the fanfiction for the series, because fanfiction writers actually know what they're doing.

I listened to songs by Ninja Sex Party while writing this. I wonder if that came across.

I took the way they resolved the issue with Garra from the story Drop of Poison. I thought it was handled really well there. I hope you don't mind that I did that, guy who wrote that story.

Ok let's redo the character sheets to make them more concise and understandable. So we'll give each character stats that range from zero to ten, where zero is untrained civilian level and ten is S-class warrior level. Each level up is harder to attain than the last, so someone who's level four is noticeably better than someone who's level three, and so on. Not that someone who's level three can't beat someone who's level four, but it'll be an uphill battle. With the scaling being such that while the difference between a level 0 and a level 1 is just noticeable, the difference between a level 9 and a level 10 is vast. Then we'll put down their most commonly used techniques, and abilities.

Explanation of the stats using speed as a reference point:  
0 is untrained civilian or starting academy student.  
1 is finishing academy student or relatively fit civilian.  
2 is experienced genin or civilian who's a track star.  
3 is chunin expectant, like you have to be at least a 3 to graduate from genin to chunin.  
4 is experienced chunin.  
5 is jonin expectant. Like you have to be at least this fast to be promoted from chunin to jonin.  
6 is experienced jonin.  
7 is elite jonin.  
8 is Kage expectant.  
9 is Kage who specializes in speed.  
10 is the fastest anyone could unreasonably be expected to go.

All other stats progress the same way, I just don't want to explain them all.

One last thing. It's technically possible to be above level 10, but almost unimaginable that any human would attain a level above 10. Because above 10 you start approaching divine levels of power. To give an example Kakuzu in canon would be either level 9 or 10 in ninjutsu. Pein has reached a level so high in ninjutsu that I would give him a 10.5. Madara though, with his two meteors, would definitely be a level 11. What I'm saying is that this system, though not mentioned, is a measurement of strength and ability that exists in the world of this story. Level 10 is a level put into the system as a sort of pie in the sky ideal. Yes it's possible to obtain, but nobody expects you to actually do it. Any hypothetical level above 10 is something that most in this world would consider actually impossible. That's why the measurement stops at 10, even though it's technically possible to get a higher score.

Naruto Stats:  
Speed: 4.5/10 (5/10 while using his focused explosive tags to boost speed.)  
Strength: 3/10  
Intelligence: 3/10  
Chakra amount: 8/10  
Chakra control: 3/10  
Taijutsu: 3.5/10  
Genjutsu: 1/10  
Ninjutsu: 2/10  
Melee weapons: 3/10  
Ranged weapons: 3/10  
Fūinjutsu: 4/10  
Total score: 38/110  
Elemental Affinity:

Techniques:  
Ninjutsu (Replacement technique.)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clones, Transformation technique.)  
Taijutsu (Sprint fist.)  
Nail jutsu (Illusionary nail rain, Nail shot, Sprint fist with nails attached to his knuckles.)  
Fūinjutsu (Unsealing a huge boulder to crush foes, shooting a huge boulder at enemies, rapid fire shooting large rocks at foes, regular explosive notes, directed explosive notes, using focused explosive notes to simulate flight, using reinforcement to make his gear stronger.)

Ino Stats:  
Speed: 3/10  
Strength: 3/10  
Intelligence: 3/10  
Chakra amount: 4/10  
Chaka control: 4/10  
Taijutsu: 2.5/10  
Genjutsu: 2/10  
Ninjutsu: 3.5/10  
Melee weapons: 4/10  
Ranged weapons: 3/10  
Fūinjutsu: 1/10 (Can use explosive tags and sealing scrolls, but doesn't know how they work.)  
Total score: 33/110  
Elemental Affinity: Water primary, Earth primary. (Neither affinity is stronger than the other.)

Techniques:  
Ninjutsu (Water clone, Mind body transfer technique, Rapid mind body transfer technique.)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clone, Transformation technique.)  
Taijutsu (Basic academy style.)  
Spear use (Can throw her spear well too. She just doesn't because then she wouldn't have a spear to use.)

Sasuke Stats:  
Speed: 4/10 (5/10 while using the curse seal.)  
Strength: 4/10 (4.5/10 while using the curse seal.)  
Intelligence: 4/10 (3/10 while using the curse seal.)  
Chakra amount: 4/10 (5/10 while using the curse seal.)  
Chakra control 3.5/10 (2.5/10 while using the curse seal.)  
Taijutsu: 4/10  
Genjutsu: 3/10  
Ninjutsu: 4/10  
Melee weapons: 3/10  
Ranged weapons: 3/10  
Fūinjutsu: 1/10 (Can use explosive notes and sealing scrolls, but doesn't know how they work.)  
Total score: 37.5/110  
Elemental Affinity: Electricity primary, Fire secondary.  
Bloodline limit: Sharingan.

Techniques:  
Ninjutsu (Fire flower jutsu, Great fire ball jutsu, Replacement technique, Dragon flame jutsu, Electric charge jutsu, Fire wire jutsu.)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clones, Transformation technique.)  
Taijutsu (Mishmash of the academy style and all the taijutsu techniques he's ever seen while his Sharingan was active.)  
Sharingan (Copies jutsu, Speeds up his perception of time, Allows him to see chakra outside the body, Allows him to plant subtle hypnotic suggestions with prolonged eye contact.)  
Fūinjutsu (Use of the curse seal.)

Tenten Stats:  
Speed: 3.5/10  
Strength: 4.5/10  
Intelligence: 4/10  
Chakra amount: 3/10  
Chakra control: 5/10 (her idol is Tsunade, so she's worked on her chakra control a lot.)  
Taijutsu: 3.5/10  
Genjutsu: 2.5/10  
Ninjutsu: 2.5/10  
Melee weapons: 4.5/10  
Ranged weapons: 5/10  
Fūinjutsu: 5/10  
Total score: 43/110  
Elemental Affinity:

Techniques:  
Ninjutsu (Replacement technique.)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clone, Transformation technique.)  
Taijutsu (Academy style mixed with the small amount of the Strong Fist, taught to her by Gai.)  
Hammer use  
Staff use  
Knife use  
Sword use  
Fūinjutsu (Her hammer staff, dust cloud explosion custom explosive notes, reinforcement and hardening seal covered scroll used as a shield, hardening and reinforcement covered scroll used as a sword, water scrolls, electric notes, fire notes, wind notes, earth scrolls.)

Lee Stats:  
Speed: 4/10 (with weights) 5.5/10 (without weights.)  
Strength: 5/10  
Intelligence: 3/10  
Charka amount: 4/10  
Chakra control: 3/10  
Taijutsu: 4.5/10  
Genjutsu: 0/10  
Ninjutsu: 0/10  
Melee weapons: 3/10  
Ranged weapons: 3/10  
Fūinjutsu: 1/10  
Total score: 32/110  
Elemental Affinity:

Techniques:  
Taijutsu (Strong fist)  
First gate (Increases speed and strength to 6/10.)  
Second gate (Increases speed and strength to 6.5/10.)  
Third gate (Increases speed and strength to 7/10.)  
Fourth gate (Increases speed and strength to 7.5/10.)

Neji Stats:  
Speed: 4.5/10  
Strength: 3/10  
Intelligence: 4.5/10  
Chakra amounts: 3/10  
Chakra control: 5/10  
Taijutsu: 5/10  
Genjutsu: 3/10  
Ninjutsu: 2/10  
Melee weapons: 3/10  
Ranged weapons: 3/10  
Fūinjutsu: 1/10  
Total score: 37/110  
Elemental Affinity:  
Bloodline limit: Byakugan.

Techniques:  
Taijutsu (Gentle fist, Kaiten, Sixty-four palms.)  
Ninjutsu (Replacement technique.)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clone, Transformation technique.)

(It just occurred to me that in this version of team Gai, Tenten is technically the strongest member. I mean if we're including trump cards, I would actually say Lee is the strongest, than Tenten, Than Neji. However without the use of body destroying secret techniques, Tenten is the best over all.)

Sakura stats:  
Speed: 1.5/10  
Strength: 1.5/10  
Intelligence: 2.5/10  
Chakra amount: 1/10  
Charka control: 5/10  
Taijutsu: 1.5/10  
Genjutsu: 3/10  
Ninjutsu: 2/10  
Melee weapons: 1.5/10  
Ranged weapons: 1.5/10  
Fūinjutsu: 1/10  
Total score: 22/110  
Elemental Affinity:

Techniques:  
Ninjutsu (Replacement technique)  
Taijutsu (Academy style)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clone, Transformation technique, Subject displacement illusion, Flare illusions, Illusionary kunai clone technique, Illusionary shuriken clone technique, Sleep illusion.)

Shikamaru stats:  
Speed: 2.5/10  
Strength: 2/10  
Intelligence: 5.5/10  
Chakra amount: 2.5/10  
Chakra control: 3/10  
Taijutsu: 2/10  
Genjutsu: 2/10  
Ninjutsu: 3.5/10  
Melee weapons: 2/10  
Ranged weapons: 2.5/10  
Fūinjutsu: 1.5/10 (He basically knows how explosive notes work, though he couldn't make one.)  
Total score: 29/110  
Elemental Affinity:

Techniques:  
Ninjutsu (Replacement technique, Kagemane.)  
Taijutsu (Academy style)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clone, Transformation technique, Subject displacement illusion, Sleep illusion.)

Shino stats:  
Speed: 2.5/10  
Strength: 2/10  
Intelligence: 3.5/10  
Chakra amount: 2/10  
Chakra control: 4/10  
Taijutsu: 3/10  
Genjutsu: 3/10  
Ninjutsu: 3/10  
Melee weapons: 2.5/10  
Ranged weapons: 3/10  
Fūinjutsu: 1/10  
Total score: 29/110  
Elemental affinity:

Techniques:  
Ninjutsu (Replacement technique, Kikaichu clone, General kikaichu use.)  
Taijutsu (Academy Style)  
Genjutsu (Illusionary clone, Transformation technique, Subject displacement illusion, Flare Illusion.)


End file.
